


Wild Country

by Snapplelinz



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 33,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23189883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snapplelinz/pseuds/Snapplelinz
Summary: Clarke Griffin and Finn Blake have been dating for five months when Finn decides to introduce her to his family. Will the Blakes accept their relationship? And how does Lexa, Finn’s beautiful and surly cousin, factor into the equation? It’s ‘The 100’, but with some of the characters and an AU twist.
Relationships: Clexa - Relationship
Comments: 62
Kudos: 178





	1. Meeting The Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke meets Finn’s family for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this story years ago for a different fandom and decided to re-work it for a newer and spicier Clexa version because...reasons :-P This is an AU fic without the drama and tragedy which usually befalls the characters from 'The 100'. I got a hankering for writing a countryside romance while playing 'Choices', don't even ask (lol). And this was the result :-D Hope you all like it!

Clarke wasn’t sure what she was doing here. She stared forlornly at the mass of emerald green hedges separated by thin coils of barbed wire off to her left and the clusters of mountains that seemed to touch the sky. It was exquisite in an alien way and it unnerved her a great deal. She didn’t belong here.  


A light tug on her hand brought her back to her senses and she gazed at her boyfriend of 5 months with a sheepish smile.  


“Hey, where did you go just now?” Finn asked, a playful grin coursing his handsome face. Clarke sighed blissfully on the inside looking at him. He had this magical way of keeping her calm when her innate anxiety over new and scary situations got the best of her. But then she remembered with a jolt that he was the one introducing her to a new and scary situation and she felt anxious all over again.  


“Babe, you’re worrying about nothing. My family’s going to love you.” Finn continued, hoping his voice sounded a lot more reassuring than he felt.  


He loved his family immensely. But there was a reason why he’d waited so long to introduce any serious girlfriends to his devoutly Christian bloodline. But it was different this time. He was crazy about Clarke. And she was sweet and charming – how could his family not fall in love with her too?  
Somehow, he doubted that was what was worrying his adorable girlfriend at this precise moment as she stared with suspicion at the broad and tall trees. Clarke was a city girl to her core. Before moving to Washington DC during her college years, she had grown up in San Francisco. And before he had moved to Washington DC, Finn had grown up in the country. In Arkadia of all places.  


Clarke wasn’t sure she’d even heard of the place until Finn had told her he wanted her to meet his family. Country folk were so different from people in the city – what if Finn’s parents thought she was a ‘city hussy’ trying to corrupt their innocent son? Clarke scrunched her nose in bewilderment, wondering when was the last time anyone had actually had used the term ‘hussy’ in civilised conversation.  


Finn locked the car with the remote control and took Clarke’s hand once more. “We’re here,” he murmured more to himself. He breathed in the scents of fresh grass and the downy earth with its rich undertone of fertiliser and inhaled deeply. It had been far too long since he’d been home. It was good to be back. “Let’s go,” he whispered to Clarke, shooting her an encouraging smile.  


And then they began walking along the dirt road littered with beige rocks and pebbles, which was a good 500m from the small hill on which Finn’s family home stood. Clarke’s nerves were already oversensitive and now scores of flies and mosquitoes kept flying and landing intrusively on her face as she walked hand in hand with Finn. Why did bugs always insist on going for the face or the jugular?  


“There he is!” a female voice boomed with happiness.  
Finn’s face crinkled with a similar feeling of joy as he laid eyes on a middle-aged woman with pale skin and greying hair whose eyes were just like his.  


“Mom!”  


Clarke watched in a mesh of amusement and disappointment as Finn disentangled himself from her and sprinted to his mother. She stared at mother and son interlocked in a warm and intimate embrace that went on for longer than five seconds. Till now, Clarke hadn’t thought of Finn as a ‘Mama’s Boy’. Maybe she didn’t really know her boyfriend as well as she thought and hoped, even after 5 months.  


“Well, well. If it isn’t the runt of the family,” a tall and handsome man with wavy, jet black hair announced, narrowing his eyes at Finn.  
Finn in turn eyed the figure with a stony glare of his own. Clarke was even more confused when both men suddenly started laughing raucously and fist-pounding each other.  


“Hey, big bro,” Finn greeted with a crooked smile.  


“Come say that to my face,” the older man growled with affection as he pulled his younger brother into a bear hug.  


Then Finn moved towards a beautiful younger woman with long brown hair who had the same adorable cheek dimples as he did.  


“Finn!” the girl greeted with obvious affection.  


“Sis!” Finn boomed, sweeping the younger woman up into his arms and spinning her around in a circle.  
Clarke quirked an eyebrow at this display of affection. Finn had waited till their fifth date to hold her hand and kiss her at the end of the night. And here he was, giving away love and affection like it was going out of style.  


The next of member of his family was a tiny wrinkly woman with big brown eyes that didn’t seem to stare at anything. “Hey, Nana…” Finn greeted with just a touch of awkwardness.  


He’d always been that way around his grandmother. Mainly because she’d started slowly going senile when he was still in high school. She didn’t seem to want to mix with anyone in the family, choosing instead to spend her time de-weeding the vegetable patch or sweeping the wooden floors of the house, mumbling to herself about things only she alone knew.  


And finally, Finn came to stand in front of a tall middle-aged man with broad shoulders and dark eyes like flint that almost matched his greying hair.  


“Dad...” Finn said, his nervousness far more apparent this time around.  


The older man studied his youngest son for the longest time in silence that was impregnable in its abstraction. Then as if coming to a sudden decision, he relented and clapped the younger man on the shoulder, a small smile creasing his face. “Good to see you, son,” he murmured, letting his hand remain on his son’s skinny shoulder.  


Then Finn seemed to remember that Clarke was still standing awkwardly beside him, waiting for an introduction. “Clarke, these are my parents, my older brother Bellamy, my baby sister, Octavia, and my grandmother. Everyone...this is my girlfriend, Clarke.”  
Clarke sucked in a breath and lifted a pale hand to wave self-consciously at Finn’s family. “Hi,” she began in a breathless voice. “It’s...very nice to meet you all.”  
Finn’s mom was about to say something when her youngest son interrupted with ‘Wait a sec, somebody’s missing. Where the heck is Lexa?”  


“She took Pearl out for a stroll,” Bellamy offered with a knowing look at his baby brother.  


Clarke was about to ask if ‘Pearl’ was the family dog when Finn’s dad interrupted this time around. “Here they come now,” He muttered, wiping dust that had gathered on the sleeves of his blue and white plaid shirt as he spoke.  


Clarke heard the sound of galloping hooves and turned around abruptly. Because the sun was directly in her eyes, she could just make out the charcoal silhouette of a figure riding a horse on the dirt road on which they stood. She heard a flurry of murmured words from the rider, which made the horse whimper with keenness and come to a halting stop in front of her.  


The rider hopped off from the saddle with a kind of effortless grace and approached a bewildered Clarke. Her face was hidden by a big brown summer hat. But everything about her, from the subtle curves of her slim hips that poked out from her faded jeans, her skinny arms to her flowing curly, honey-brown hair that escaped the hat perched on top, Clarke could tell that it was most certainly a woman. This fact was made more apparent when the stranger took the hat off and wiped a band of sweat that had collected on her small forehead, shaking her hair out in the process.  


“There you are,” Finn’s mom greeted with a warm smile.  


“Yes, here I am,” the strange woman answered in a gruff voice. Then her mint-green eyes landed on Clarke. “What’s this?” she demanded in an abrupt tone.  
Clarke didn’t understand it, but she felt a flicker of annoyance at the fact that the woman had said ‘what’s this?’ instead of saying ‘who’s this?’  


“Lexa, this is Clarke, Finn’s girlfriend.” Octavia explained, raising her eyebrow meaningfully at the brunette.  


“Sheesh, where are my manners?” Finn cut in. “Clarke, this is my cousin Lexa. Although she’s lived with our family for years, so she’s more like a sister to me.”  


“I don’t recall you ever pushing Octavia out of a tree and breaking her arm in the process, and she’s definitely your sister.” Lexa declared in a huff. But Clarke saw that her impossibly green eyes twinkled with mischief while looking at Finn and something akin to butterflies fluttered in her stomach.  


“I hope you won’t tell my girlfriend all of my deep dark secrets. I want her to still love me after this family visit.” Finn murmured with a light chuckle. But inwardly, he was being more than frank with his cousin. He loved Lexa like a sister, but her enigmatic personality made for a lot of unwanted surprises that seemed to backfire on him at the worst possible moments. She’d already scared off more than a few of his previous girlfriends just because of her overprotective nature. It was awfully sweet that she cared so much about his wellbeing. But her constantly grilling his lady loves about their intentions for him made for an uncomfortable drive back to the city afterwards with said girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend if Lexa had her way). He honestly didn’t know whether his old girlfriends had disliked his cousin because of her extraordinary beauty or her uncomfortably frank disposition. Maybe it was both.  


“I guess we’ll just have to see if she really loved you to begin with,” Lexa answered, a bright smile adorning her high cheekbones. The look on Finn’s cousin’s face unnerved Clarke a great deal. What did she mean by it?  


“Let’s get inside and unload your bags,” Bellamy suggested, taking charge of the semi-awkward pause after the greetings and Lexa’s sudden appearance.  


“Yes,” Finn’s dad agreed. “You can tell us more about your latest project at work.” With that, he wrapped a strong arm around Finn’s shoulder and started leading him away.  


Bellamy stooped in front of Clarke and picked up both hers and Finn’s bags, lifting them up easily with one hand. Clarke knew for a fact that she hadn’t packed light for this trip, despite Finn’s incessant complaining. She surmised that while Bellamy was tall and lean, he must still bench press a lot of weights.  


“If you need anything during this trip, don’t hesitate to ask, Clarke.” Bellamy offered with a charming smile, winking salaciously at his brother’s girlfriend, causing the blonde woman to blush profusely.  


“Cool your jets, Don Juan. Don’t forget what Finn did to you the last time you hit on one of his girlfriends.” Octavia quipped, throwing Clarke a sympathetic smile.  


“What? I can’t be nice?” Bellamy protested as his baby sister punched him in the arm. “And for the record, I tripped over that bale of hay – Finn did not tackle me into it!”  


“Whatever you say, Bells. Come on, Lexa!” Octavia called out over her shoulder.  


“Just a sec. I’ve gotta put Pearl in the barn!” Lexa shouted back. That left her and Clarke standing together as the rest of Finn’s family walked up the hill. To cover up the tense-filled moment, Lexa put one foot on the stirrups and hoisted herself back onto the chocolate brown horse in a single leap.  


“So um...it’s nice to meet you.” Clarke blurted out.  


Lexa gazed down at her for the longest time without saying anything. Then she chuckled darkly and stared straight ahead of her. “We’ll see,” she mumbled in turn. She clicked her tongue three times through her parted lips and Pearl broke into a canter.  


And Clarke was left there standing like an idiot watching the brown-haired beauty ride off in the direction of a maroon-coloured barn a few paces away without a backwards glance. Shaking her head at the strange encounter, Clarke dug her hands deep into the pockets of her threadbare hot pants as she went after her boyfriend.


	2. Stirring The Pot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke gets grilled more than steak on a barbeque.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things heat up during Clarke's first lunch with Finn and his family ;-)

Clarke walked slowly along a pathway constructed from loose pebbles with small shoots of weeds and flowers growing underneath. Polis, the Blake family’s farm, was a lot bigger than she had previously imagined. Finn had told her months ago that his family had recently begun their own apple orchard along with the cows and pigs they were breeding and the wheat plantation that had been started decades before. She could see row upon row of those golden-brown plants trembling lightly in the wind just a few paces away from the homestead.  


In comparison to the wide expanse of land they owned, the Blake family home was only a modest, two-storey cedar oak affair with a wide, red roof sporting a weather vane in the shape of a rooster on top. A massive wooden porch complete with several rocking chairs and a long, porch swing spread out in a circle around the house which reminded Clarke of _House on the Prairie _.  
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Clarke followed the rest of Finn’s family around the corner to a small wooden stairwell leading up from the driveway to the front yard. It was a small strip of freshly mown grass set atop a small hill surrounded by tall stringy trees and a small area for barbecuing off to the right. From here, Clarke walked through a screen door to the left and parted reluctantly with her Louis Vuitton wedges by a space allocated for house shoes.  


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Then with her heart in her throat, she padded barefoot onto a soft downy carpet that tickled her toes. The living room was sparsely furnished with a few wicker chairs and two small leather sofas. A small bookshelf stood in the corner along with a gigantic plasma TV hung above it on a metal bracket.  


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Finn had always told her that his family wasn’t very well off. But the price of high-quality television sets had gone down in recent years, making it possible for every household in America (rural or urban) to own an impressive model or two.  


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Clarke couldn’t resist smiling at the few family pictures that hung on the wooden walls. It was easy to pick out Finn in each one, a cheeky grin dotting his boyish face at every turn of the camera lens.  


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“You and Finn will be sleeping in his old bedroom across there,” Finn’s mom said, throwing Clarke a warm smile.  


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The blonde woman surmised that Finn’s family wasn’t nearly as puritanical in their Christian beliefs as she’d previously thought. It was true, the Blakes attended church every Sunday and were always the first family in the district to donate clothing and household appliances to their church’s bi-annual yard sales.  


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But this was still the countryside after all.  


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Here, it seemed perfectly natural to live in sin and only receive the tiniest of stabs at disapproval for it.  


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Clarke walked behind Mrs. Blake through yet another screen door, which opened out onto a small balcony where two patio chairs and a low table sat with a book perched on top. Then they opened screen door, which led to separate quarters apart from the rest of the house.  


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The first room looked like a storage unit of sorts where scores of gym and sports equipment was kept. Since Clarke couldn’t imagine Finn lifting any kind of iron, she guessed that this might possibly be Bellamy’s room. And on the right was Finn’s old bedroom. Clarke couldn’t help smirking at the faded posters of Reese Witherspoon and Britney Spears that decorated every inch of the small beige walls.  


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And off to the left was -  


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“Lexa’s room,” Mrs. Blake said, reading Clarke’s thoughts accurately. “She’s a lovely girl once you get to know her. But she likes her privacy, sometimes a little too much. So it would be better if you don’t go in there for any reason other than a supremely good one.” She advised with a tight smile. Clarke nodded in affirmation, silently wondering what the deal was with Finn’s surly cousin.  


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Just then, Mr. Blake poked his head in through the open screen door, startling Clarke in the process. “Food’s ready,” he declared in a gruff tone. Then he turned away and left again. Mrs. Blake smiled and patted Clarke’s arm in an awkward, yet decidedly affectionate way as they walked back into the main section of the house.  


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Since it was such a lovely summer’s afternoon, they’d decided to have an impromptu barbecue outside, the eight of them crammed together in two long green wooden tables pressed together. Even though it was a beautiful day with birds chirping merrily in the trees, it was too sweltering for Clarke to be properly comfortable.  


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It was also scorching back in Washington DC too where Clarke lived, especially during the month of July. But unlike in the countryside, there were so many cool buildings with top-of-the-line air conditioning systems to escape into on hot days like this. And it didn’t help that as many as five big mosquitoes caught sight of Clarke’s naked arms and proceeded to nip at them at every turn.  


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There were far too many open spaces here in Arkadia for Clarke to get used to. How was she going to survive the next four weeks under the strict scrutiny of Finn’s family? 

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To calm her nerves, Clarke took a deep breath, inhaling the delicious smells of grilled steaks, potato salad and green beans that had been placed in plastic containers in front of her. Finn had already cracked open a can of beer and he and Bellamy started talking animatedly with one another in-between sips. At least her boyfriend was enjoying himself.  


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“So, Clarke,” Octavia began a little uncertainly. “Finn says you were a med student at Georgetown.” After saying that out loud, Finn’s younger sister inwardly wondered how her brother had landed a woman who was clearly beautiful with her sun-kissed blonde hair and crystal blue eyes and book-smart too.  


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“Yes!” Clarke proclaimed with over exuberance, thankful for something (anything) to talk about. “I studied medicine once upon a time. But honestly, it was something my parents wanted more for me, my mom’s a doctor. So after a few years, I changed my major to Art, specialising in Graphic Design. I’m currently working for a media company called _Ton DC Graphics _–”  
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“Ton DC?” Bellamy asked quizzically through a mouthful of creamy potatoes. “What the hell does that stand for?”  


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“It’s a nickname for Washington DC,” Lexa piped up unexpectedly, her eyes focused on cutting up her steak into neat pieces with a knife and a fork. She stopped slicing her meat when everyone at the table stared in astonishment at her. “It’s not that hard to figure out – someone was clearly too lazy to spell the rest of ‘Washington’.” She added in a glib tone.  


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Clarke wasn’t impressed by Lexa’s blunt way of speaking, but she couldn’t deny that Finn’s cousin kind of had a point; she’d had the exact same thought about the strange abbreviation for _Ton Dc _when she first began working there. “Right. It’s a burgeoning industry and I’m learning the ropes so I can start putting my artwork on a digital platform in the future.”  
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“That’s wonderful, Clarke,” Finn’s mom said with a small smile dotting her lined face.  


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“So you gave up a medical degree to draw for a living?” Finn’s dad questioned, wrinkling his nose in bewilderment. He was a practical man at heart and didn’t have much patience for what he deemed as ‘new-age-hippie-jobs’.  


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“Yes, but Clarke is an amazing artist, Dad,” Finn put in with a hasty smile. “She has high aspirations for her career path.” Again, Clarke felt distinctly annoyed. She was happy that Finn was proud of her talent, but why did her boyfriend feel the need to defend her at every turn? Was he embarrassed by her in front of his family?  


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Clarke certainly wasn’t ashamed of what she did for a living. She’d come from a middle class background, but she was more than willing to start at the bottom if it meant she could pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a renowned artist on several platforms.  


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“I for one think it’s cool,” Octavia put in, reaching across the table to lightly palm Clarke’s outstretched hand. “Clarke may very well be the classiest girlfriend Finn’s ever had and the only one that I’ve liked so far too.” She added with a twinkle in her eye.  


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“Wow, way to kiss Clarke’s ass, O,” Bellamy quipped, shovelling a freshly made hotdog into his mouth.  


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“Don’t hate on me just because I’m more charming than you,” Octavia retorted, sticking her tongue out at her older brother.  


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“Don’t hate on me - yeng yeng yeah!”  


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“Yeng yeng yeng yeng yeah!”  


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“Don’t mind them, they’re socially challenged,” Finn apologised with a sheepish grin thrown at his girlfriend while Bellamy and Octavia continued mocking one another openly.  


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“Just keep smiling while they carry on like idiots,” Finn’s mom advised with sardonic laughter, making Clarke chuckle.  


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“Cheese!” Nana Blake piped up unexpectedly, startling everyone.  


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“She, uh...thought we were taking a picture. Ain't that right, Mama?” Finn’s dad asked of Nana Blake in a falsely chipper tone.  


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“Yes!” Nana Blake cried out happily.  


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Clarke bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing out loud, busying herself with dishing up some green beans instead. She felt someone scooch closer to her and she jumped a little when she gazed right into Lexa’s compelling green eyes in close proximity. For one glorious moment, she’d nearly forgotten that Finn’s intimidating cousin was sitting right beside her.  


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“Why are we eating outside? It’s so damn hot today,” Lexa remarked in a dull tone.  


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“Language, Lexa.” Finn’s mom rattled off like she did this a lot where Finn’s wily cousin was concerned.  


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“What did I say?” Lexa asked with genuine innocence.  


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“You said the ‘D’ word,” Octavia put in helpfully in a staged whisper.  


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Clarke quirked an eyebrow at this particular idiosyncrasy within the Blake Family. Sure, her own mother had chastised her for saying 'damn' many times when she'd been a kid. But she certainly didn't scold her for it now that she was an adult. And hadn't Octavia said 'ass' just a moment ago without receiving any disapproving comment whatsoever?  


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“Oh my! Thou shall be ‘D-ed’ to the fieriest pit of hell,” Bellamy added, laughing appreciatively at his own stupid joke.  


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“Morons,” Lexa and Finn said at the same time. “Jinx!” They exclaimed a moment later.  


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“Uh, what’s going on now?” Clarke asked with a small chuckle, not getting the inside joke.  


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“Oh, it’s just some dorky tradition Lex and Finn have been doing since they were kids.” Bellamy supplied through a mouthful of steak.  


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“And whoever says ‘jinx!’ last has to clean out Pearl’s quarters for that day,” Octavia went on with a knowing smile.  


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“I said it first!”  


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“Did not!”  


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“Did too!”  


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“Why do we have this stupid ritual anyway? He’s your damn horse,” Finn grumbled.  


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“Language!” both Mr and Mrs. Blake snapped at the same time.  


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“Sorry,” Finn said with a deep blush.  


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“So, Clarke…” Lexa began tentatively. Clarke turned her head to give Lexa her attention. The blonde found the rhythm of Finn’s cousin tapping her chin thoughtfully with her index fingers morbidly riveting, those piercing green eyes penetrating through her like X-rays. “How does art compare with medicine?” Lexa finally asked in a soft murmur.  


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Clarke laughed lightly to cover up her nervousness. “I guess it doesn’t really, they’re two separate fields of expertise. Funnily enough, learning about the human anatomy came in pretty handy for both,” she joked, which drew a lot of laughs from Finn’s family.  


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All except for Lexa, who kept studying Clarke like she was some kind of science experiment. Clarke was beginning to feel overexposed just from that look alone.  


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“Something on your mind, Lexa?” Clarke finally asked when it looked like Finn’s cousin wasn’t going to break the impenetrable silence that she’d created.  


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“Nothing, really. It’s just that you seem to have really delicate hands. I always thougbt that artists had more calluses on their hands caused by painting and sculpting.” Lexa remarked with an unfathomable look on her face.  


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Clarke immediately retracted her hands, which had been resting with the palms facing upwards atop the wooden table. Finn glanced across the table at his cousin and made a gesture with his eyes to tell her to knock it off. “Well, I haven’t sculpted anything in a while, so that’s probably why my hands are in such good condition these days.” She countered, her tone openly frank and friendly all at once. If Lexa wanted to grill her, then two could play that game.  


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“Then that’s something you and Finn’s previous conquests all have in common.” Lexa continued in that same irritatingly superior tone that Clarke didn’t like.  


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“Having delicate hands?” Clarke queried in confusion, not knowing what Finn’s obnoxious cousin was trying to imply.  


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“That, and an aversion to farm work.”  


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“Lay off, Lexa,” Finn quipped, dropping his fork in exasperation at his cousin’s behaviour.  


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“I’m sorry, but how did you get that from me having delicate hands or my love of art?” Clarke demanded, finally losing her patience with Lexa’s blatant comments.  


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“You just don’t strike me as someone who does manual labour in any form.” Lexa finally offered with a dismissive countenance.  


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“And the fact that I don’t magically means I’m not good enough for Finn?”  


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“No one would ever say a thing like that, Clarke,” Mrs. Blake interjected with an air of finality, hoping her words would have the effect of stopping a pending fight between the two young women.  


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“But that is what you’re saying, Lexa.”  


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Clarke had to take a moment after that to calm herself down, the hand holding her glass trembling with unrepressed anger. She didn’t know where she got up the sudden courage to challenge someone as intimidating as Finn’s beautiful cousin. But there she was in the middle of a family gathering doing just that with eight other pairs of eyes fastened on her every move, Lexa’s included.  


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“Wow. Kitty’s got claws,” Bellamy muttered under his breath in reference to Clarke, followed by a loud drunken burp soon after.  


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“I didn’t mean any offence, Clarke. I was simply wondering about how compatible you and Finn are as a couple,” Lexa supplied after a long and awkward pause from everyone present.  


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“Don’t you think I’d be a better judge of that, Cuz?” Finn prompted of Lexa in a would-be-calm tone.  


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“I think he would be!” Octavia piped up with a manic smile on her face, hoping that everyone at the table would stop acting like idiots.  


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“Agreed. Who wants more potato salad?” Mr. Blake asked genially of the table at large.  


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“Hold on a second,” Clarke interrupted to everyone’s disappointment. “What’s the correlation between me being a good girlfriend and knowing how to work on a farm?”  


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“Well, it is close to harvesting season and it would be nice to know that at least one of Finn’s girlfriends can lend a helping hand instead of complaining about their Mark Ronson heels sinking in the mud.”  


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“First of all, the fashion designer you’re thinking of is Marc Jacobs. Second of all, I didn’t realise that I needed to know things like milking a cow in order to pass the Blake Family Test of Approval.” Clarke scoffed.  


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“Of course you don’t need to know how milk a cow, honey. No one needs to do that,” Finn protested, shooting a death glare at Lexa.  


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“I don’t even know how to do that,” Octavia supplied. "Just kidding. But I always feign breaking a nail so Bell does it for me."  


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"Thanks, baby sis," Bell quipped through gritted teeth.  


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“Let me guess: Lexa can milk 10 cows at a time using only one hand? Maybe lift a whole tractor with her mind?” Clarke deadpanned.  


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“I get by,” Lexa answered drolly, finally looking away from Clarke.  


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______ _ _

“Lexa helps dad on the farm.” Finn explained, his eyes flitting nervously between his girlfriend and his cousin.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“I have chronic pain because of my back. Lexa does more than help me – she runs the whole damn farm,” Mr. Blake  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“Language,” Bellamy couldn’t resist saying in a facetious tone.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

Finn’s dad rolled his eyes at the nonsensical interruption and continued. “Lexa may be a little rough around the edges, but she’s a da-rn good farmer. And I couldn’t be prouder of my niece.” He declared with sudden gravity. That was the first rush of true emotion that Clarke had seen displayed by Finn’s father since she’d arrived. And it just had to be about Lexa’s supposed farming skills.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“You flatter me too much, Uncle Rob,” Lexa murmured.  


______ _ _

____

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Clarke was struck anew by the way that Lexa’s left dimple appeared every time she smiled with sincerity. It made her look younger and more carefree. And breath-taking. 

______ _ _

____

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Clarke cleared her throat and downed the rest of her cool glass of water, trying her best to forget all about Finn’s obnoxious cousin sitting beside her.  


______ _ _

____

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“Shoot, we’re all out of beer.” Bellamy blurted out, tapping a rhymic pattern on the table.  


______ _ _

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“I’ll go get some more,” Finn’s mom announced.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“I can go get it, if you want.” Clarke offered out of the blue. She was barely aware of when she’d risen from her seat in front of Finn’s family. Only that she needed some breathing room for several blissful minutes.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“Thank you, Clarke. That’s very kind of you.” Mrs. Blake remarked with a smile of gratitude.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“I’ll come with you,” Finn said, about to get up.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“It’s ok, sweetie, I'm happy to do it.” As strange as it sounded, Clarke felt like she also needed a moment of peace away from her boyfriend too.  


______ _ _

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“The kitchen’s off to your right as you go through the screen door. The beers are in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator. Give it a good tug – it sticks.” Octavia offered.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“Thanks. Be right back.”  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

With that, Clarke was forced to wedge herself between the table and Lexa just to get away from it all. They were so close to one another that her back was pressed right up against the surly brunette’s face. How embarrassing. She scurried away, swatting a few random flies out of her face as she walked back towards the main screen door. She made a quick detour into the nearest bathroom and splashed cold water on her face.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“Everything’s fine, you’re doing great. Except that everyone probably hates you for taking jabs at Finn’s cousin,” Clarke mumbled to herself after studying her pale face in the murky crystal of the modern looking glass.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

She clenched her hands at her sides as she moved towards the open-air kitchen located alongside the living room. The refrigerator, a small model painted a placid white, was easy enough to find; it was located right next to the old fashioned gas plate and oven. A dull light flashed directly in Clarke’s eyes as her bony fingers latched onto the drawer in question.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

But as it turned out, Octavia’s pronouncement about the drawer being a little stuck was inaccurate. It was completely welded shut. Clarke grunted and panted like she was running a marathon, trying with all her might to shimmy a little leverage between the tiny pocket of air she’d already created.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

“Come on, you rusty piece of sh-WHOA!!!”  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

As basic Physics dictated, too much force applied to a stationary object caused the object in question to shoot forward at Clarke’s stunned features. Before she could block either the impact of the drawer colliding sharply with her face or even falling backwards, a sturdy pair of arms gripped her from behind and held her in place.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

The drawer did end up smacking her on the nose and part of her exposed lip, which now stung painfully. But the hands that had grabbed her had shielded her from falling onto the hard tiled floor. So now Clarke was pressed up against a warm body, two pairs of thrumming heartbeats pulsing through her overly sensitive eardrums in the dimly lit kitchen.  


______ _ _

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“Are you ok?” Lexa asked absurdly close to her. Lexa???  


______ _ _

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Clarke, who’d managed to keep the loose drawer close to her chest scrambled haphazardly onto her feet and out of the clutches of Lexa’s achingly sweet embrace.  
“I’m fine!” she answered, perhaps a little too loudly. “I think I drawer the broke – I mean, I think I broke the drawer.” She added, feelings her cheeks heat up to room temperature.  


______ _ _

____

______ _ _

Lexa quirked a smile which didn’t make her feel any better about the awkward situation.  


______ _ _

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______ _ _

“Don’t sweat it. You can always just sketch a new refrigerator for us.” She returned with a voice as sweet as silky drops of honey.  
With that, Lexa grabbed the cold beers that Clarke had meant to grab herself and sauntered out of the kitchen, whistling a merry tune that annoyed the tar out of the latter.

______ _ _

____

______ _ _


	3. Fanning The Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke sees a different side of Lexa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an intentional pun in the chapter summary ;-)
> 
> I'll see myself out.

“Seriously, what is your cousin’s deal?” Clarke fumed for the umpteenth time. The second she and Finn were finally alone, she blurted out what had happened with Lexa in the kitchen earlier that day. Minus the part about how strangely nice and perfect Lexa’s arms around her felt for all of those miserable five seconds.  


The sun had set hours ago and the night sky was now teeming with glowing fireflies and a ripe dank humidity that wrapped around your skin like a thin, filmy layer of heat. Despite her growing annoyance with Finn’s headstrong cousin, Clarke had to admit that it was beautiful here in the countryside.  


She never got to experience anything like this listening to endless cars honking, crowds of people pushing and shoving you everywhere you went and the putrid smells of sweat and claustrophobic indifference that marked the thriving metropolis. If it weren’t for the fact that they were visiting Finn’s family, Clarke would’ve been perfectly content vacationing here, just the two of them.  


Finn sighed and gave up lounging on top of the cool duvet his mother had dressed the bed with earlier that morning and sat up straight looking at his overly anxious girlfriend. Because it was such a hot night, he was only wearing his boxers, his lean and muscular body on display against the backdrop of the lone glow of the lamp dancing against the tiny walls.  


He had really thought it would be a lot easier for her to meet his family and feel at ease around them. Then again, she hadn’t let him kiss her properly until their fourth date...  


“Babe, I already told you. Lexa’s not as mean as she seems. She’s just...guarded around new people. She’s always been that way ever since I can remember.” Finn explained with a weary countenance.  


“I can understand that. But she’s really been grilling me like crazy today. Like...I killed her parents or something,” Clarke huffed with a touch of melodrama.  


The teasing smirk fell from Finn’s face when he heard that. “It definitely wasn’t you who killed them.” He mumbled finally.  


Clarke stopped short mid-rant and stared in bewilderment at her boyfriend. “What do you mean?”  


“I mean that they died a long time ago,” Finn elaborated. “They were farmers like my parents, in this area too actually. There was a bad flood here in Arkadia when I was 8 years old. My uncle and aunt were outside when it happened, trying to herd all the scared animals to a safe place. They got caught in a strong current and drowned along with some of the animals they were trying to save. That’s why my family took Lexa in. She was an only child.”  


“God,” Clarke whispered, feeling sick to her stomach. “That’s awful.”  


“Yeah,” Finn agreed. He got off the bed slowly and encircled Clarke in his arms, nuzzling her exposed shoulder blade with his small chin as they stood together in his childhood bedroom. “Lexa has the tendency to be a stuck-up bitch at the best of times. But she’s family and I’d really like it if you two could try to get along. For me.”  


Despite her feelings of empathy towards Lexa in the moment, Clarke still couldn’t resist rolling her eyes at Finn using his ‘cute baby face tactics’ to get her to bond with his weird cousin. Men could be such children when they wanted things to go their way.  


“Fine, I’ll try. But only because you look pathetic when you beg,” Clarke griped, but with a smile on her face as she turned around in her boyfriend’s arms.  


“That’s the spirit! You and Lexa can even bond by mocking me if you like,” Finn teased right back, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously at his girlfriend.  


Clarke sighed again, but only this time in a more breathy way that conveyed her specific needs and wants in that moment as she stood on tiptoes and kissed Finn. They started to really get into it when Finn stopped caressing the small of her back with his big hands and cursed inaudibly.  


“What now? Did I only score 3 out of 10 on my kissing skills?” Clarke mocked, moving Finn’s untidy blonde bangs out of his eyes.  


“Like that would ever happen,” Finn countered in earnest. “No, I just left my PS Vita in the sitting area outside my room.”  


“What’s it doing there? You keep that thing attached to you like a newborn.”  


“Ha ha, very funny. I escaped my dad’s super boring conversation about tractors after dinner and went there to play a few levels of _NBA 2K18 _. Just when I finally started dominating in ‘Career Mode’, that douchebag Bellamy came in and gave me an atomic wedgie. I totally forgot I left my video game behind.” Finn complained in an irresistibly cute way.  
__

__“Wow, that was a super long and boring way of telling me you’d rather play video games than make out with me.” Clarke declared with a facetious grin.  
_ _

__“I’m only gonna play for like...12 minutes, tops.” Finn said in a persuasive tone, wrapping his hands lightly around Clarke’s lithe waist.  
_ _

__Clarke responded by moving out of his grasp and patting his bare chest with her hands. “Ok, Bradley Beal. I’ll be the best girlfriend ever and go get it for you.”  
_ _

__“On top of the electronic piano!” Finn called out happily. Clarke giggled to herself when her boyfriend made a big show of whooping with delight and jumping onto his bed with a bouncy spring.  
_ _

__She shook her head and left his bedroom in search of the elusive game console. Sure enough, it was resting precariously on the edge of a black key on the keyboard.  
_ _

__As she moved to pick it up, she caught sight of a tiny sliver of light mingling with a series of black shadows peeking through the door left ajar that led to Lexa’s room.  
_ _

__Clarke craned her neck ever so slightly and caught sight of a tall figure moving past the partially open door. It was Lexa and unlike the entire day when she’d kept her hair up in a loose bun, it now fell down in damp streams of golden pearls. She had her back to Clarke and hadn’t yet noticed that she was being watched.  
_ _

__And all the brunette could see through that tiny sliver of door was that Lexa was dressed in nothing but a pair of faded grey shorts, her enticing back curving downwards into the shape of a ‘V’ and on display for Finn’s latest girlfriend. Clarke watched with depraved curiosity at the way that the tiniest muscles rippled through Lexa’s naked shoulders as she leant over her bedroom mirror and began combing through her wet tendrils of hair with an ancient-looking wooden brush.  
_ _

__Then as if she had sensed her presence, Lexa turned around suddenly and stood staring through the doorway. Clarke was too stunned to offer an explanation or an apology for her major faux pas. So instead, she spun around and all but ran into hers and Finn’s bedroom, slamming the door in the process.  
_ _

__Which left Lexa in an unusual predicament: questioning why her stomach had clenched with an achingly sweet pain when she realised that it was Clarke who’d been watching her.  
_ _


	4. Teasing The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke gives Lexa a taste of her own agave-flavoured medicine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really can't stop with the puns and cliched sayings. It's a sickness :-P

After that night, Clarke did her best to stay out of Lexa's way, quashing any residual feelings of confusion over inadvertently spying on Finn's mysterious cousin till they flickered like a dull flame inside her chest. And when Finn suggested that they have drinks at a local bar after dinner one night, Clarke readily accepted the invitation.

The drive into town took no time at all and Clarke got out of Finn's car, stretching out the stiff muscles in her legs and arms. She surveyed her surroundings with curiosity, quirking an eyebrow at the bar Finn had chosen. It was a rickety, concrete structure with a massive wooden porch in the front similar to that of the Blake's home and bright neon lights that spelled out the word 'Grounders'. The blonde artist tittered in disbelief when she laid eyes on what looked like clumps of real tumbleweed floating ethereally across the dusty porch. Just how 'country' was Arkadia anyway? Clarke could appreciate Kenny Chesney as well as the next person, but this seemed like a bridge too far.

"Shall we?" Finn asked a moment later, throwing his girlfriend an impish smile and extending his arm to her.

Despite her misgivings about how this vacation was going so far, Clarke really couldn't resist feeling better when Finn smiled at her. That smile contained an endearing sentiment of good-naturedness that was impossible to resist.

"We shall," Clarke returned in a good-natured tone, threading her arm through Finn's as they walked into Grounders.

Clarke was relieved to find that the interior of the bar was a little more modern in its furnishings. The floor looked like it hadn't been swept in weeks, but they were long tables with booths that had soft and squishy leather your whole butt could disappear into, which Clarke liked. She caught sight of four pool tables in the centre of the room and a battered looking pinball machine located to the right near the men's room. An array of tiny Christmas decorated the walls, criss-crossing haphazardly over a giant moose-head attached to a plaque hanging above the bar itself. Clarke checked herself when she locked eyes with the bartender: a short, but burly man with tanned skin, a thick beard and immaculate fade haircut, tattoos all over his face and arms and small, dark brown eyes that were almost black in the dim lighting.

Finn caught Clarke gulping nervously at the bartender, who hadn't blinked in a whole minute, and chuckled, draping a protective arm over her petite shoulder. "Chill, babe, that's just Nico, the bartender and owner. He looks like he just got out of a maximum security prison, but he's a big ol' softie."

"I'll take your word for that," Clarke mumbled in an unconvinced tone. It didn't help matters when Nico smiled maniacally at her for a split second, showing teeth that looked more like the canines of a wolf than a human.

But after Finn plied his grumpy girlfriend with more fruity cocktails, her mood lifted and she actually began to enjoy herself and her surroundings. More people began showing up after 21:00 and the volume inside the bar became a rousing cacophony of boisterous conversations and drunken laughter. Clarke was more than a little surprised when Lexa blew in through the doors, her face taut with a speculative frown as she scanned her surroundings. She only deigned to acknowledge Finn and Clarke's presence in front of the bar with an imperceptible nod.

"I didn't know that Lexa drank. She didn't have any beer with Bellamy at that one family lunch," Clarke mused aloud.

"Lexa doesn't like beer. But if we stick around long enough, you'll definitely see her down a whole bottle of tequila." Finn replied with a smirk.

He smiled even more at Clarke raising her eyebrow in intrigue at his words. "Really? Tequila's her poison?"

"That's right, chiquita."

"Far out. Does drinking alcohol help her loosen up at all?"

"Honestly," Finn began with an amused chuckle, "No," he added glumly afterwards.

Clarke chuckled darkly at this and continued sipping daintily on her Long Island Iced Tea. Still, her eyes kept skimming over Lexa's side profile as she grabbed a pool stick and started shooting some coloured balls by herself. The blonde-haired woman couldn't help noticing Finn's cousin's tonight: she still wore black skinny jeans and her beat-up brown boots. But instead of a ratty t-shirt, she was wearing what many would deem as a fashionable and feminine halter top that showed off her golden skin in tantalising streams. Her mass of honey-brown curls were tied up hastily, letting everyone see the subtle muscles rippling through her shoulders as she stood hunched over the pool table and took aim.

"Hey! If it isn't Country Mouse back from the big city!" a booming voice announced itself.

Clarke turned at the appearance of short, but skinny woman with streaks of black-blonde hair and dark eyeliner under her brown eyes. She was almost as scary-looking as Nico, till Clarke noticed that she was beaming brightly at her boyfriend. Luckily not in a way that would've made her jealous, but just like two old friends seeing each other after a long absence.

That same smile was on Finn's face when he got up from his barstool and hugged the girl in question. "Anya! Damn, girl – look at you! How are you doing?"

"Still working in this shit hole, but I can't complain."

"Hey! My bar is a classy establishment," Nico complained loudly while cleaning a glass with an old dish rag.

"Keep telling yourself that, Nico. There are cockroaches that helped you cut the ribbon when you opened this place!"

Clarke snorted into her drink and Anya finally noticed the presence of Finn's lovely companion. "Oh no, don't tell me she's here with you? Did you finally cave and start using an escort service?"

"I'm flattered that you think I have enough money to pay this beautiful woman to date me," Finn teased right back.

"And if I were an escort, he definitely couldn't afford me." Clarke joined in, feeling more and more comfortable around Finn's old friends.

"Beautiful and witty – she's already too good for you," Anya declared, fixing Clarke with an easy smile. "I'm Anya – Finn and I used to go to school together."

"I'm Clarke, Finn's non-escort girlfriend."

"Nice to meet you."

"You working tonight, Anya?"

"Yip, but my shift ends in 20 minutes. I promised Raven that we'd drink tonight and also force Lexa to have some fun."

"Good luck with that," Finn remarked in a glib tone in reference to his surly cousin. "How's Raven doing?"

"She's still pissed that you haven't paid her back from that time you car broke down outside Jolly Bee." A new voice piped up.

This time, Finn whipped around sharply and Clarke glanced in confusion at the shifty grin on her boyfriend's face when he stared at a woman with a voluptuous figure, caramel skin, raven black hair and a gorgeous face that was sure to drive both genders insane. Now Clarke felt a tiny bit jealous.

"Raven! I was gonna come see you as soon as I had a free minute…" Finn began unconvincingly, which didn't fool anyone.

"Uh-huh. Worried I was gonna chase you around with a tire jack again?"

"In my defence, we wouldn't have ended up at that Jolly Bee at 3am if you hadn't gotten a sudden craving for their cheesy fries."

"And in my defence, I thought my ride home from that party at Moonshine Manor would have an extra tire in the trunk of his car on a rainy night."

"Whose idea was it to go to Moonshine Manor in the first place? As I recall, you wanted to quote-on-quote 'body surf on Bellamy' for old times' sake'."

"Dude! I told you that in confidence!"

"Ok, can we please pause this conversation for a moment?" Clarke piped up, bewilderment written all over her face.

"Thank you! I cannot hear this stupid fight for the 50th time already!" Anya lamented, wishing her friends could stop acting like morons.

"No, not that. I need to know asap why there is a place in Arkadia called 'Moonshine Manor'." Clarke explained.

"And I need to know why there is a gorgeous female sitting so closely to Finn. Did he pay you to be here? If you are here against your free will, please blink twice." Raven went on, turning her attention to Clarke.

Clarke backpedalled and realised she could do nothing but like Raven after all; it wasn't every day that people called her a 'gorgeous female'.

"They're dating," Lexa interrupted. She had stopped her solo game of pool to get her bottle of tequila and a shot glass from Nico.

"No way!" Raven whooped, going so far as to wrap her hands around Finn's neck and start giving him a noogie.

"Yes way. I'm Clarke," the blonde artist introduced while Finn fended off Raven's attacks on his voluminous hair.

"She's from 'Ton DC'," Lexa supplied with a smug grin on her face that irritated Clarke to no end. Had she really stopped avoiding both her and Finn for the night just so she could be snarky for kicks?

Anya and Raven caught each other's eye for the briefest moment after Lexa's quip. Clarke frowned in confusion when the two friends smiled knowingly at each other for what felt like no apparent reason.

"Really? That's quite a distance from Arkadia." Anya noted, a small grin playing on her thin lips.

"Indeed. I came to meet Finn's family." Clarke explained.

This time, Clarke wasn't slow in noticing how the two friends grinned in Finn's direction before their eyes travelled over Lexa's sulky features.

"Well slap my sweet ass and call me 'Black Beauty'. We're gonna need more drinks," Raven declared boisterously.

After that, Clarke was herded into a booth with Finn, Raven, and an unwilling Lexa. Clarke sat across from Finn's surly cousin, watching the brunette with morbid fascination as she did everything in her power not to engage in conversation with anyone at the table. Lexa did this successfully by positioning three shot glasses in front of her and practised her beer pong skills with a small, pink ball that she'd grabbed from behind the bar counter.

"So why is this bar called Grounders anyway?" Clarke asked curiously, tucking into a hot plate of greasy nachos that Anya had placed in front of her just before her shift ended.

Finn chuckled with nostalgia while mixing his Coke and Rum with a straw. "It's kind of an inside joke."

"Enlighten me."

"Well, you'll have such a good time getting drunk here that your parents will ground you." Raven explained, rolling her eyes for comedic effect as she spoke.

"Interesting," Clarke replied just before quirking her eyebrows in confusion. "But what if you're an adult already? Your parents can't ground you for drinking too much."

"Nico has a weird sense of humour." Anya supplied glibly.

"Yip, and he came up with the name of the bar when he was 15 and got grounded by his parents for drinking too much and throwing up in their orchard." Finn concluded, still finding the story humorous after all this time.

"Ok, definitely a weird sense of humour then," Clarke conceded, leaning forward to take a sip from Finn's drink.

The action wasn't lost on Lexa and she was quick to pick up the slack with the natural lag in the conversation. "At least with Nico, what you see is what you get." She murmured before downing another shot of tequila.

Finn blanched at this comment and was about to say something to Lexa. But Clarke beat him to it by fixing Lexa with an unblinking stare.

"As opposed to what, Lexa?" the blonde artist asked without hesitation.

Lexa met her gaze head-on, the electricity pulsing and sizzling between them. "People spend too much time hiding behind masks of what they think people want them to be. Better to be perceived as a liar rather than a deviant, right?"

"I disagree," Clarke said with simplicity. Then she did something even more astounding, reaching between her and Lexa to grab the bottle of tequila. Finn, Raven and Anya watched amazement while Clarke brazenly poured herself a shot glass full of tequila straight from Lexa's bottle.

"Oh snap," Raven mumbled, her eyes goggling in awe. She snuck a side-long look at Lexa, expecting her friend to be seething mad.

Lexa didn't look happy, but she also wasn't enraged either. If Raven didn't know any better, the brunette's pursed lips almost made it seem like she was impressed by Clarke's actions.

Clarke downed the tequila in one fell swoop, the lime-green liquid burning her throat as it travelled down to her stomach. A heady sensation swirled through her skull, making her feel fearless and reckless all at once. Maybe this was truly the effect that Lexa's disdain had on her and everyone present.

Lexa flinched ever so slightly when Clarke looked her dead in the eye and smirked. "Everyone lies a little to make themselves look good, Lexa. Then there are other people like you who always tell the truth just to deliberately keep people at a distance. In my humble opinion, I think people who are frank just to hurt others are the real liars."

"Really? And how do you figure that?"

"Because they're the ones who care more about what others think of them at the end of the day. You, my dear Lexa, are no different from us mere mortals after all." Clarke concluded, smirking one last time out of pure satisfaction.

Finn whistled awkwardly while Lexa goggled in stupefaction at his girlfriend's pronouncement.

"Can I get an 'ouch, that hurts'?" Anya mumbled into her drink, trying very hard not to laugh. Raven wasn't nearly as successfully as she began snorting loudly into her tall glass of Guinness.

It took what felt like an eternity for Lexa to stand up, her posture rigid with unrepressed tension. Finn pointedly looked towards the entrance of the bar to give his cousin the impression of feigned dignity.

"Well…maybe another bottle of tequila will make an honest woman of me yet," Lexa pronounced in a clipped tone before stalking off.

For the first time all night, Clarke felt a little guilty about Lexa's sudden retreat, the latter positioning herself at the bar counter instead. "I pissed her off, didn't I?" she murmured in an awed whisper.

"She'll get over it," Raven chortled, her laughter escaping more freely from her mouth now that Lexa was a safe distance away.

"Yeah, in about 10 years or so," Finn quipped. "She's still mad at you after what happened to Pauna," he added in an aside to Anya.

"Who's Pauna?" Clarke questioned when Anya squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

"Pauna was this ridiculously huge gorilla plushie that Lexa had as a kid. She took it everywhere and even cuddled with it at night. One day, Lexa took Pauna with her when the two of us were riding on my dad's tractor during harvest season. I wanted Pauna to ride shotgun with me so she could have a better view of the wheat fields, but Lexa wanted to keep her at the back with her, so we started grappling for the plushie. One thing led to another and Pauna ended up underneath the tractor…"

"Oh my God!" Clarke exclaimed, laughter escaping her lips before she could stop it. "Anya…you killed…Pauna?!"

"It was an accident!" Anya fumed, which made Finn and Raven erupt into boisterous laughter over their drinks. "Of course, Lexa thought I did it on purpose because I was apparently jealous of a giant gorilla…"

"Lexa didn't talk to Anya for 6 weeks after that," Raven confessed to Clarke.

"You're kidding."

"It's true. She even created a murder board consisting of different ways to exact her revenge!"

"Ok, I get why she'd be upset. But a murder board with a revenge list attached to it seems kinda extreme," Clarke marvelled.

"Oh, it wasn't a single list. More like groups of sticky notes decorated with Care Bears." Finn supplied, his face turning red from laughing so hard.

Clarke really didn't know what to think. A surly Cousin Lexa who liked fiercely cute mammals? It was a lot to take in, even with the copious amounts of liquor that she had consumed during the night.

Finn, who'd been reclining in their booth, suddenly sat upright and pricked his ears like a wolf on the hunt. "Incoming," he muttered at Raven.

The dark-haired beauty followed her friend's gaze towards the bar counter. Lexa was no longer alone, but in the presence of a petite and pretty brunette. Clarke didn't know whether she was meant to feel amused or jealous that Finn had noted another attractive female in their midst so quickly.

"The Commander strikes again," Raven noted, a sly smile playing on her cheeks.

"Commander?" Clarke asked quizzically. "Who exactly is Lexa in command of?" she asked out loud.

"Pretty much everyone in town because she's bossy as fuck!" Anya crooned with a drunken hiccough.

Clarke rolled her eyes and took another shot. "I'll bet," she retorted. Still, her eyes were drawn like magnets to the tiny muscles in Lexa's shoulder blades poking out through her tank top. They were taut with tension while the petite brunette continued to talk to Finn's surly cousin in hushed murmurs.

"What's going on there?" Clarke finally asked of Finn and Lexa's gaggle of friends. The blonde artist couldn't help noticing the way the girl's fingernails brushed lightly over the fabric of Lexa's shirt while she leant in excruciatingly close.

Finn remained sincerely puzzled while Raven and Anya exchanged knowing looks for what felt like the umpteenth time that night. Clarke was surprised when Anya answered out of everyone.

"That's Costia, she works at the hardware store. She's got it bad for Lexa."

Clarke was stunned beyond belief. Lexa, who had clearly had a stick wedged up her tight ass since birth, was gay? "Really? So…Lexa swings that way?"

"Like a lasso," Raven mocked, albeit good-naturedly.

Finn rolled his eyes and stole a pretzel from Raven's plate, which earned him a scowl from the latter. "Lexa can barely tolerate humans as is and you're suddenly taking the leap that she likes girls?" he asked in a barely-repressed scathing tone.

"How else do you explain the way Costia keeps looking for reasons to touch Lexa every chance she gets? She's like a human claw machine," Raven murmured, marvelling at the way Costia's fingers had inevitably found purchase on Lexa's bare arm yet again.

And yet, Clarke noticed that Lexa wasn't actually doing anything to encourage Costia's advances, if that's what they really were. If anything, Lexa kept finding ways to subtly move her barstool further and further away from Costia without the latter taking too much notice of the inadvertent rejection.

"I think you're reaching, Raven," Finn countered in a knowing manner.

Out of everyone, Anya took a decidedly neutral perspective and the words she uttered next shocked Clarke. "No one around here really knows for sure what Lexa's 'deal' is. Lexa's kind of a closed book when it comes to her personal life, if she even has one outside of taking care of the family farm. I will say this much though: once anyone gets hooked on Lexa, they don't know what hit 'em."

A silent shiver passed along Clarke's spine as she evaluated Lexa's side profile. For the barest minute, Finn's surly cousin glanced her way and their eyes met. The look they shared was charged with something that Clarke had never felt before in her entire life.

Naturally, she blamed it on the copious amounts of alcohol that she had consumed.


	5. Flipping The Bird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lexa and Clarke agree that chickens are the bane of any farmer's existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a pretty short chapter, but hopefully silly enough to make you laugh. Or just roll your eyes and say, 'Oh, Snapp, you are a silly goose,' ;-) Slight warning for strong language thrown around in this chapter. Cover your innocent ears if you need to. And please excuse the facetiously long line breaks during the chapter interlude. AO3 and I are still trying to decode each other in more ways than one :-S

Even with these new insights into Lexa's complex personality and the knowledge that Clarke now possessed about the tragic losses she had previously suffered, the blonde artist still couldn't help but feel flustered and annoyed by the fact that everyone in Finn's family seemed to be ganging up on her for the next few days.

And this was because everyone had gotten it into their heads that the worldly blonde needed assistance with getting to know and tolerate Lexa better. This view was not shared by either Clarke or Lexa and both of them tried to resist with all their might. Even Rob, Finn's dad, was in on it too.

After that initial impression she'd had of him, Clarke was surprised when the gruff-looking man thawed immensely and even seemed to smile a lot more in her company. But with that acceptance came the insufferable hints Rob kept throwing at Lexa to 'help Clarke' with something or the clichéd 'Why don't you tell Clarke about the time that you...?' anecdotes to get Finn's cousin thawing on her own. It was driving Clarke crazy.

It had begun with little things that began early every single morning; the whole family insisted on waking up early every day and waking Clarke (who loved sleeping in) up in the process with their bustling around the big farmstead.

"Oh shoot, I forgot to put a fresh bar of soap in the shower." Finn's mom muttered in dismay as Clarke prepared for her ritualised morning wash. "Bell, where's the box of soap?"

"You have a box filled with bars of soap?" Clarke asked in a comical manner.

"Of course we do, dear. It's very convenient to buy household products in bulk here in the countryside. Don't you buy your necessities in bulk too?" Sue inquired innocently. In all honesty, the thought to do so had never even occurred to Clarke.

"Bell!" Sue shouted a second time. 

"I don't know, Mom!" Bellamy bellowed back from the second bathroom a good 10 seconds later after the question had been asked.

"Lexa!" Mrs. Blake screamed, startling Clarke in the process. "Where's the soap box?!"

"In the barn!" Lexa yelled back from her bedroom.

"Perfect! Won't you be a dear and go fetch it for me? And put a fresh bar straight into Clarke's hands when you come back upstairs!"

"Mrs. Blake, that really isn't necessary-"

"Please call me Sue, honey. And of course it's necessary, you're a guest in my home." Finn's mom interjected with a kind smile. "And Lexa's happy to do it. Aren't you?"

She aimed her question just as Lexa opened her bedroom door and gave Clarke an unpleasant scowl. "I'm positively enthralled by the idea, Aunt Sue," Lexa finally offered, forcing a tight smile onto her face.

There seemed to be a lot of things that the rest of the family needed Lexa to 'get out of the barn' just for Clarke as her stay continued. An extra toothbrush when Clarke's own one accidentally fell into the toilet bowl after Finn forgot to put the seat back down. Extra stores of butter freshly churned up during the week for Clarke's toast in the morning. Insect repellent for the scores of mosquitoes that attacked Clarke's porcelain skin at every turn.

And then of course, there was the 'Flaky Incident'.

"She got out." Octavia informed the family over breakfast one morning, a grim look painted on her face. Everyone save for Clarke groaned in unison at this.

"Again?"

"That moron!"

"Uh, who are we talking about?" Clarke finally asked.

"Flaky." Lexa answered, immediately averting her eyes and returning to the newspaper in front of her.

"And Flaky is...?"

"Only the dumbest and most aggravating chicken we've ever owned." Finn supplied with an eye-roll. "I'll go get her."

"Pfft, like she'll go to you." Bellamy snorted through a mouthful of bacon.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Flaky hates you. You do remember that she once took a dump on your arm when you tried to pick her up, don't you?"

"I think I'll skip the cream," Clarke muttered squeamishly, re-considering dolloping the thick (but slightly runny) white matter onto the freshly baked scone in front of her.

"You just have to bring that up every chance you get?" Finn fired back at his older brother.

"Can't help it. It was just that funny." Bellamy said, a sly smirk on his face.

"Well, someone has to go put Flaky back into the henhouse." Rob Blake declared in a firm voice. "So who's going to do it?" Everyone save for Clarke and Mr. Blake immediately started whistling loudly in turn.

"I can't do it. My back isn't what it used to be..." Sue stammered, busying herself with her plate of scrambled eggs and toast.

"I did a French manicure," Octavia added, holding up her hands as further proof.

"She's too fast for me." Bellamy supplied.

Then everyone's attention turned to Lexa, who stared wearily back. "Lexa-"

"Aww, man - why me?"

"Flaky will go to you." Sue said in a mild tone.

"Yes, with lots of biting before and after I pick her up. That bird is possessed!"

"Listen to your aunt," Rob implored with firmness.

Lexa grunted something inaudible as she got up from her seat.

"Clarke can help you." Octavia said out of nowhere.

"Clarke can do what now?" the woman of the hour asked in bewilderment.

"Help Lexa get Flaky back into the birdhouse with the other chickens." Finn explained, a mischievous smile playing on his face.

"But I don't know anything about chickens!" Clarke protested loudly.

"All the more reason to learn, Big City Life," Bellamy put in, chuckling to himself.

Clarke and Lexa locked eyes on one another, both inwardly thinking the same thing. This was going to be a long and unforgettable family visit...

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo __**_

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Blue eyes locked on beady, poultry eyes. To Clarke, this was no ordinary encounter. This was a dalliance between Man (or Woman) and Beast.

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This was…a fight till the death.

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"If you're done mean-mugging a bird, perhaps we could try putting Flaky back in the henhouse," Lexa began in a droll tone.

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"Oh, it's on," Clarke muttered at Flaky, who gazed back at her in brazen defiance. "You've already scratched me multiple times and bitten me on the ankle. You won't get another chance to do so again. Where I come from, they call me 'Wanheda' – The Commander… of Death!" She recited in an ominous tone.

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In spite of herself, Lexa burst out laughing at this menacing pronouncement by her cousin's girlfriend. "Wanheda?" she queried, one of her luxurious eyebrows lifted in evident amusement.

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"Wanheda is cold, calculating and shows no mercy!"

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"Wanheda is also a stupid comic book character that you created, genius. Can we just grab Flaky now?" Lexa asked, returning to her usual tone of disdain.

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Lexa took the initiative and inched closer towards the hen with a practised ease of stealth which Clarke begrudgingly admired. Naturally, Flaky baulked and shook her wings angrily in the brunette's direction.

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"Easy there, Flaky. No one's going to kill you today…" Lexa chided in what she hoped was a soothing voice since she disliked the stupid bird even more than Clarke.

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"Speak for yourself, Lexa. A curse upon your house!" Clarke hissed with determination while eyeing the baleful bird.

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"Did you just quote Shakespeare to poultry-"

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Lexa stopped short when Clarke emitted a blood-curdling scream as she launched herself rapidly at Flaky. But that wily chicken was too quick for the blonde and took flight.

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This time, Lexa took the initiative and dove for Flaky herself, managing to grab the bird's legs mid-air before she could head for the corn field, her go-to hiding place.

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"You did it! You get that evil bird who belongs on a set menu at Popeyes-"

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But Flaky was having none of that as her tail came into contact with Lexa's nose. The feathers scratching at her angular nose caused Lexa to sneeze violently and let go of the bird's legs.

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"Urgh, this dumb bird! I can't see!" Lexa complained, her eyes stinging mercilessly.

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"Just open your eyes, Lexa!"

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"I can't open my eyes, I'm too busy sneezing! What psychopath opens their eyes while sneezing?!"

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In the midst of Clarke and Lexa arguing, Flaky had taken flight again, heading straight for the blonde artist.

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"Hey, wait a minute! Flaky, let's talk about this – _AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH! _"__

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Flaky landed on top of Clarke's head as if it were a blonde-haired landing strip and started pecking relentlessly at her skull.

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"Clarke, stay still!" Lexa shouted, her eyes no longer water from sneezing so hard.

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**"HOW CAN I STAY STILL?! THERE IS A BIRD TRYING TO FUCK-START MY HEAD RIGHT NOW!"**

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Having heard all the commotion from inside the house, Finn came running at break-neck speed onto the porch. Bellamy was already there, and lounging comfortably on the porch swing, watching Lexa and Clarke's shenanigans with Flaky unfold.

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"Have you been sitting here this whole time?!" Finn demanded indignantly of his older brother.

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"Yip," Bellamy replied, chewing nonchalantly on a strip of tobacco.

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"Douchebag," Finn quipped before running towards Clarke, "Babe, it's ok, just calm down…"

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**"DO NOT TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, FINN!"**

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"This is way better than pay-per-view," Bellamy mused to himself and chuckling appreciatively.

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	6. Rescuing The Damsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lexa shows off more than just her blueberry picking skills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed this countryside Clexa romance. You guys are awesome :-D This is a longer chapter which will move things further along with Clexa. I won't spoil too much, so I apologise in advance if my knowledge about the countryside and various fauna and flora is limited or flawed. I'm a city girl to my core :-P

After that infamous encounter with Flaky (Clarke spent ages counting every bite and scratch that demon-possessed bucket of fried chicken had inflicted on her), Clarke was on high alert for any crafty tricks Finn's family had up their sleeves for bringing her and Lexa together.

Today was no different when Sue wanted to bake a pie filled with –

"Blueberries," she announced in a cheerful tone while everyone was reclining outside close to the barn where they'd barbecued together on the first day of Clark's arrival.

"Are we all out?" her husband asked in a gruff tone.

"Yes, we are. Lexa, won't you be a dear and-"

"No! Absolutely not!" Lexa fired back heatedly. She was sick to death of her family getting it into their heads that she somehow needed to bond with Finn's latest tryst.

She wasn't even sure she liked Clarke. Then again, liking her might've been the whole problem...

"Sheesh, Lexa!" Octavia proclaimed, laughing at her cousin's angry words. "Over-reaction, much?"

"I'm not going to pick fresh blueberries with Clarke." Lexa snapped.

"No one said you had to," Sue said with an air of dignity.

"But since you were kind enough to mention it..." Rob trailed off. Clarke could now see just where Finn got his playful side from while studying the sly grin that formed endearing wrinkles around his father's eyes.

"I don't know how to pick blueberries." Clarke stammered in a hopeful tone. She was just as exhausted from all the close contact with Lexa lately. Especially after what she'd seen of the surly beauty when she'd been combing her wet hair the first night she arrived...

"It's really easy," Finn put in, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend's waist from behind. Clarke quirked an eyebrow when she noticed the way that Lexa's throat tensed up and contracted while she watched the two of them closely.

"Our neighbours on the adjacent farm let us pick blueberries from their bushes and our family in turn lets them have a healthy supply of eggs." Bellamy answered for Clarke's benefit.

"The two of you should get going before it gets dark," Rob informed them.

"You could take Pearl and Lydia. They need the exercise." Sue added with a smile.

It seemed like the women clearly didn't have a choice in the matter. They stared at each other in dismay, silently wondering what they'd done to deserve these random acts of 'kindness'.

  


_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

  


Twenty minutes later, both Lexa and Clarke had climbed onto the family's two horses and set off at a steady trot en route to their neighbour's plantation.

_******** _

It had been years since Clarke had ridden a horse, but she managed to keep herself upright in the saddle, her fingers latching onto the reins as Lydia neighed loudly beneath her. She couldn't understand what had possessed someone to name a horse 'Lydia'.

_******** _

She gazed enviously off to her left at Pearl, who wasn't making Lexa rock to and fro like she was readying to throw her off at any second. Both the rider and the horse trotted along with happy camaraderie while Clarke had to keep adjusting the reins and urging Lydia to go slower over the rocky pathway that sloped downwards into a picturesque valley.

_******** _

Despite present company, Clarke couldn't help admitting that the scenery of their neighbour's farm was gorgeous with its rows of tiny green plants sticking up from the brown earth and the clusters of cooling trees framing the plantation in an emerald arc, providing soothing shade from the scorching heat of the sun overhead.

_******** _

"Lydia's not deaf, you know. She just doesn't like you," Lexa finally said, a nasty smile playing on her face at Clarke's innate misery.

_******** _

Clarke stopped whispering obscenities at Lydia and fixed her eyes on Finn's rude cousin instead. "How would you know? Are you the horse whisperer or something?" she deadpanned.

_******** _

"As a matter of fact, I am." Lexa announced with pride. "I've always been good with horses. Ever since I was little."

_******** _

"It's too bad you spent more time whispering to horses instead of people. It might've made you a little less bitchy over time." Clarke instantly regretted her words when Lexa's face fell and they lapsed into a moody and tense silence.

_******** _

"We're here," Lexa said after a long while.

_******** _

The rows of plants had finally ended and they now faced a clump of unruly bushes lined with small circles of dark objects. Lexa dismounted easily from Pearl and led her to a nearby tree, taking a short but strong-looking coil of rope from her saddle bag.

_******** _

"Find another tree and tie up Lydia," Lexa instructed without turning around. "We wouldn't want her running off like Flaky," she couldn't resist adding, chuckling to herself.

_******** _

She was enjoying teasing the born city girl. Maybe even a little too much, which served only to annoy her when she had a private moment to herself each night.

_******** _

Clarke scowled at Lexa's back as she brought Lydia to a halt. Then with shaky hands, she climbed off of the white horse's massive body, crawling unceremoniously down the animal's back as her feet mercifully touched the ground again.

_******** _

"I'm not an idiot, you know. I may live in the city, but I know how to handle a goddamn horse," she snapped finally after days of pent-up frustration. She retrieved her own coil of rope which she attached to Lydia's reins as she led the horse forward with an impatient countenance.

_******** _

Instead of offering a nasty retort, Lexa smiled instead at the city girl's feisty attitude, grabbing the wicker basket her aunt had given her for the blueberries. After ensuring that Lydia was secure, Clarke grabbed her own wicker basket and stomped off to the nearest blueberry bush.

_******** _

"So where did you learn how to ride a horse anyway? Do they have a paddock at _Ton DC Graphics _?" Lexa asked, her nimble fingers making contact with the dark berries.__

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke shook her head, mirthless laughter bubbling on her lips as she snapped a branch off in her hands. "Is that supposed to be clever? Just because I live in a big city, that instantly means I know nothing about horses or living in the countryside? And that somehow gives you the right to judge me or pretend you know anything about me? I think I finally figured out how you scared off all of Finn's old girlfriends." She spat with utter contempt.

_****____ ** ** _

"I didn't scare them off. They fled of their own accord. That's what happens when my cousin falls in love with the wrong girl." Lexa countered.

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"How the hell would you know anything about love? I've bet you've never loved anyone in your whole life. Except for a horse maybe. But I'm pretty sure that's called 'bestiality' everywhere in the world."

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa knew she should be deeply offended. But instead, Clarke's emotional jabs only seemed to endear her more to her. And that was definitely a problem. "You're doing it wrong," she murmured more gently a moment later.

_****____ ** ** _

"What? Breathing?"

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa shook her head and moved closer to Clarke till she was leaning over her small shoulders. "Keeping the berry between your thumb and index fingers will make the juice come out and your hands sticky." She elaborated.

_****____ ** ** _

She took the ruined berry out of Clarke's hand and threw it into the dirt. Then she took the latter's hand, holding it by the wrist with the lightest of feathery touches. "You want to hold the branch with a berry on it between your index and middle fingers. Then pull it quickly towards you."

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke watched with morbid curiosity as Lexa propelled her hand forward, her fingers moving automatically to obey her instructions.

_****____ ** ** _

"Now pull," Lexa whispered delicately in her ear.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke acquiesced and the branch came away from the bush with a loud snap, freeing a good 10 blueberries in its wake. But she was pulsing over with rage and it showed when she released her hand from Lexa's soft grip and threw the berries into the wicker basket hanging loosely from her other arm.

_****____ ** ** _

"You don't know me," she said with forced calm, even though her whole body was quaking. "It's not me who Finn needs to be protected from. Maybe it's you."

_****____ ** ** _

"Clarke-"

_****____ ** ** _

"I'm going back to the house. That way you can get all the credit for a job well done. It's what you want, isn't it?" Clarke turned away from the hateful woman and stopped short in perverse astonishment.

_****____ ** ** _

In all that time she and Lexa had been bickering, she hadn't heard the tell-tale hissing, a leathery body crawling through the dusty dirt with generations of predators to back up its presence till it had situated itself right behind her.

_****____ ** ** _

She staggered back just a little, her eyes wide with terror as she kept them fixed on the black and white pit viper now raised to its full height in front of her. Lexa put down her basket of berries slowly and started calculating in her mind what the best approach was.

_****____ ** ** _

She wasn't afraid of snakes; she'd spent her entire life growing accustomed to their sporadic appearances in this lonely part of the countryside. But judging from Clarke's rigid posture, the city girl was scared out of her mind.

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"Clarke, listen to me very carefully..." she began with halting breaths.

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"It's a snake, Lexa. It's a fucking snake!" Clarke hissed through gritted teeth. Sweat poured down her temples like a torrid waterfall and her heart was jumping in her throat.

_****____ ** ** _

"It won't hurt you as long as you don't move a single muscle. I need you to be calm and stay exactly where you are-"

_****____ ** ** _

But Lexa's words were drowned out by the high-pitched shriek that left Clarke's mouth as she turned around and tried to run away. She fell to the ground in an instant and hit her head as the snake slithered away.

_****____ ** ** _

"Clarke!" Lexa was by her side in an instant, kneeling down and picking her head up from the ground.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke looked up at her with wonder, a strange buzzing filling her ears, feeling something wet and sticky coursing down the side of her face. "You're right, that wasn't so scary after all," she remarked with a pleased smile, a dreamy countenance dancing over her face.

_****____ ** ** _

That's when Lexa looked over the rest of the body and saw the fresh puncture wounds on the back of Clarke's calf. "No..." she whispered in horror.

_****____ ** ** _

"I feel funny, Lexa..."

_****____ ** ** _

The country girl knew that pit viper venom wasn't deadly. But they were a good mile away from Arkadia and without access to the appropriate medicine to take care of snake bites. Why hadn't she thought to bring medicine with them?! In Lexa's defence, pit vipers rarely came out during the day because of the scorching heat, so she'd taken it for granted that any would be hanging about. If the venom stayed in Clarke's bloodstream for too long, it would make her badly sick for at least a good week.

_****____ ** ** _

"Hey, look at me. Focus on me, Clarke." Lexa pleaded while caressing her cheek, feeling utterly panic-stricken in the moment.

_****____ ** ** _

"It hurts, Lexa. It really hurts," Clarke gasped out, finally realising the danger of her current situation. She'd been bitten by a snake. She was going to die for sure.

_****____ ** ** _

"It's gonna be ok," Lexa mumbled for her own benefit too, her hands shaking violently. "Think, Lexa!"

_****____ ** ** _

It took a good 5 seconds of leafing through the information she'd stored away in her brain on snake attacks before she decided to do something incredibly risky.

_****____ ** ** _

"Clarke, I need you to stay calm. I...I'm going to try to get the venom out of you."

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke was feeling decidedly groggy at this point, but even she knew exactly what that meant.

_****____ ** ** _

"Lexa, wait. Don't-"

_****____ ** ** _

Her words were drowned out the moment Lexa leant over her rapidly swelling leg and pressed her lips to the wound. Then she started to suck with all her might. Her senses immediately told her to get rid of the acidic flavoured poison that she'd taken into her own mouth. But she ignored her natural impulses to stop, sucking hard against Clarke's flesh and spitting out the venom at particular junctures onto the ground beside her.

_****____ ** ** _

She stopped counting after a while, wholly focused on the task of ridding the girl's body of the vile snake venom. Clarke was breathing hard, her eyes fixed on Lexa's hands encased around her leg, her head bobbing up and down like an apple in water over her body. She was sucking so hard that it started to hurt more than quite a bit. But her lips were so soft; it almost made the pain a little worth it somehow.

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa finally stopped when her mouth came away only with the coppery taste of Clarke's untainted blood. It was at that point when Clarke finally had enough and fainted.

_****____ ** ** _

Before her head could drop to the ground, Lexa gathered it and the rest of the girl's limp body into her arms as she lifted her from the ground.

_****____ ** ** _

Then she all but jogged with Clarke in her arms back to where they'd left the horses.

_****____ ** ** _

She placed the unconscious woman under the cool shade of the tree as she untied both horses with trembling fingers. Lexa was about to pick Clarke up again when she realised yet another irritating problem. She could put the girl easily back onto Lydia, but how was Clarke going to control the horse and not fall off while she was unconscious?

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa cursed aloud and hit the side of her head with her balled fist in a mesh of frustration and anxiety over her cousin's girlfriend.

_****____ ** ** _

"Fuck?!" she screamed at the sky. "Not now, Pearl!" she snapped a moment later when the horse nudged her back. She ignored at least four of the horse's nudges before she was forced to turn around. She did a double take when she saw her favourite horse prostrated on one knee in front of her. And she finally understood. "Pearl, you beautiful, clever creature!" she cried out in joy.

_****____ ** ** _

She leant over the horse and placed a loving kiss on its forehead before going back to Clarke. For the first time since the city girl had arrived, Lexa was careful with her as she took her in her arms and placed her gingerly onto Pearl's back with one hand steadying the girl's body. With the expertise of a seasoned rider, Lexa used her free hand to steady herself and climb on too. She took hold of the reins with one hand and gingerly held onto the back of Clarke's shirt so she wouldn't fall off, clicking her tongue towards her right cheek.

_****____ ** ** _

Pearl obeyed and got back up onto her two legs as slowly as if she were giving birth to a foal. Lexa let go of Clarke's shirt and let her fall back against her chest. The blonde woman's body felt too warm to be considered natural, and yet, Lexa enjoyed the excruciating proximity of that same warmth. She kept her arms firmly clasped around the unconscious woman as she took hold of both reins and whistled at Lydia to follow them.

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa was barely aware that the sun was close to setting as Pearl and Lydia galloped back to the house. By the time they got to the foot of the hill, Clarke was stirring in her arms and the rest of the family was running towards them.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke was only dimly aware of screams of panic and confusion as she felt herself being pulled down and carried in a pair of small arms that felt warm and comforting to her delirious senses. Then everything went black for a long while.

  


_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

  


"Doctor, is she going to be ok?"

_****_____ _ ** ** _

"She was very lucky. The poison was barely in her system before you got it out. That was quick thinking, Lexa."

_****_____ _ ** ** _

"No, just dumb luck..."

_****_____ _ ** ** _

Even though it was difficult to tell where she was or what was happening, Clarke held onto the tangible feeling of gentle fingers moving over her face, caressing every inch of her clammy skin as she slept on.

_****_____ _ ** ** _

"How long before she wakes up?"

_****_____ _ ** ** _

"A few more hours, I think. Clarke hit her head pretty hard when she fell, but she doesn't seem to have a concussion. You should keep waking her up every few hours just to make sure though. The drugs I gave her are already repairing the damage from the snake bite. Her vitals look good; she's going to be just fine..."

_****_____ _ ** ** _

Flashes of blinding light passed through Clarke's closed eyelids as she struggled to hold onto those fingers, that voice keeping her from passing into an unknown sense of limbo. It seemed like an incredibly long time passed before Clarke felt those tender fingers touching her again.

_****_____ _ ** ** _

"Everything's alright, Clarke. Just wake up when you're ready, ok? I'll be here, I promise. I'm so sorry about everything..." Clarke wanted to scream with all her might for that soothing voice to stay with her. But she was going back into limbo, the only familiar thing being the delirious waves of continuity that passed through her senses.

  


_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

  


After what felt like years of being held captive by sleep, Clarke finally woke up. She glanced in confusion at the familiar cedar walls, but squinted dumbly at the strange bed she was lying on. She was back in the Blake family home, that much she knew. But this wasn't Finn's bed...

_****____ ** ** _

Someone stirred in close proximity to her and she craned her head to look. It was Lexa, who looked like she was engaged in a fitful sleep of her own, her head resting in her hands while she sat in a cramped wooden chair close to the window. In the past week since they'd met and bickered constantly with each other, not once had Clarke seen Lexa look like this.

_****____ ** ** _

So fragile and lost. It only made Clarke more confused.

_****____ ** ** _

"Lexa?"

_****____ ** ** _

When her tired eyes flickered open and met the sick girl's with a mesh of weariness and inexplicable joy, Clarke was struck anew by how vulnerable Lexa looked in that precise moment.

_****____ ** ** _

Vulnerable and unswervingly beautiful.

_****____ ** ** _

The thought only seemed to make Clarke's throat rougher and parched, like coarse sandpaper rubbing against every sinewy ounce of fibre inside her mouth.

_****____ ** ** _

"Clarke!" Lexa abandoned her wooden vigil and was sitting on the edge of the bed in no time. Clarke was more than alarmed when Finn's enigmatic cousin immediately grasped her hand tightly in hers and caressed it with crude tenderness that made her heart gallop in her chest. "How are you feeling?" Lexa asked immediately, not taking her eyes off of her cousin's girlfriend.

_****____ ** ** _

The same girlfriend that she'd allowed to get bitten by a snake. The guilt had been eating away at her for a good day without respite.

_****____ ** ** _

"Thirsty," Clarke croaked out. Her skin felt like worn leather straining against her bones; that's how much of an effort it took just to breathe in the moment.

_****____ ** ** _

"Here you go." Lexa fumbled ever so slightly as she reached over and grabbed the plastic cup resting on the pedestal beside the bed next to a glass jug, filling it to the brim with water.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke took it from her with equally shaking hands. Her incredible thirst overwhelmed her senses as she drank and drank. The born and bred country girl watched with morbid fascination as Clarke's throat throbbed in ribbed lines while gulping every last drop of water from the cup.

_****____ ** ** _

"Take it easy, you'll give yourself a pain in your stomach drinking like that," Lexa remarked in a hasty voice, her apprehension growing with every second. But her breath caught in her throat when Finn's girlfriend shot her a grateful smile that was as warm as an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Do you want some more water?" Lexa asked, her stomach feeling strangely tingly.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke shook her head and stretched out her tired limbs. "No, I'm ok."

_****____ ** ** _

"How are you feeling?"

_****____ ** ** _

"Tired and achy all over. But I'm alive," Clarke said with effortless grace. Lexa watched in confusion as the girl's eyes widened as large as saucers.

_****____ ** ** _

"What is it? Are you in pain?"

_****____ ** ** _

"No! The-the-the snake!"

_****____ ** ** _

The country woman became even more bewildered by this cryptic statement. "What about it?"

_****____ ** ** _

"Did you kill it?" Clarke demanded in a shaky voice. Something about the way she said it made Lexa burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. Clarke started to wonder if Finn's strange cousin was just a little unhinged after all. "What's so funny?" she asked in a slightly affronted tone.

_****____ ** ** _

"You," Lexa mumbled, clutching her hand to her belly. "You get bitten by a snake and you immediately want to be avenged for it."

_****____ ** ** _

"Well it did bite me. Tit for tat I say," Clarke couldn't resist teasing, even though her voice still felt like it had been sanded down with a kitchen knife.

_****____ ** ** _

"I would've loved to kill it for you. But I was a little too preoccupied with not bringing Finn back a dead girlfriend." Lexa concluded with a wry smile on her face.

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke sensed it more than she actually saw the cost of what it must've taken for Lexa to be able to smile at her right now. "Lexa, I'm so sorry. If I hadn't run away from you..."

_****____ ** ** _

Clarke stopped short when the pressure of Lexa's hand on her arm grew and grew like metal being melted in a fire. "You're sorry? Clarke, you have nothing to be sorry about. It was my fault you got bitten by that snake. If I hadn't said those awful things to you; if I'd only noticed our surroundings a bit more-"

_****____ ** ** _

"Stop," Clarke begged in a hoarse voice. Then it was her turn to lay a pale hand over Lexa's tanned one. "We've both said and done things we're not proud of. But you did save my life after all."

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa waved a dismissive hand at Clarke. "I misspoke before, you were never in any danger of dying. But pit viper venom can make you really sick, so I did what I could to get you back to Arcadia as quickly as possible. You've been sleeping on and off for at least 12 hours now."

_****____ ** ** _

"My memory's a little vague with most of what happened yesterday, but I do remember one key point. Even though I wasn't dying, you still sucked the poison out-"

_****____ ** ** _

"I know, it was incredibly stupid, and probably unnecessary." Lexa interjected rapidly. "But I didn't have the right medicine with me, so I acted on impulse. I wasn't thinking…"

_****____ ** ** _

Lexa was feeling thoroughly self-conscious in the moment as she prattled on. Or was she just unnerved by the fact that her cousin's girlfriend was still technically holding her hand?

_****____ ** ** _

"Incredibly stupid, but very sweet and brave. Thank you," Clarke whispered in earnest. For the first time since she had arrived and turned her world completely upside down, Lexa finally dared to smile at the beautiful girl lying in her bed.

_****____ ** ** _

"You're welcome." She mumbled, finally looking away and fixing her eyes on a flaking piece of plaster on the wall behind her bed. Then she remembered something. "Damn! Everyone's downstairs! They'll wanna know you're awake!"

_****____ ** ** _

Before Clarke could say anything, Lexa leapt off the edge of the bed and flew out the door. In a matter of seconds, she was being bombarded by bodies at every turn and loud shouts of jubilation along with mounds of questions being shot at her like stray bullets.

_****____ ** ** _

"Clarke, how are you feeling?"

_****____ ** ** _

"Are you cold? We should get you two more blankets."

_****____ ** ** _

"Why weren't you wearing rubber boots and carrying a stick? That's the best way to keep snakes away from you!"

_****____ ** ** _

"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?"

_****____ ** ** _

"We need to tell the neighbours about these damn snakes invading the orchards during the summer months."

_****____ ** ** _

"Those damn reptiles should've been made into tar billions of years ago!" Ironically, that last statement was made by none other than Nana Blake in a rare moment of lucidity.

_****____ ** ** _

But Clarke only had eyes for her boyfriend, whose eyes looked suspiciously puffy and red. The only time she'd ever seen Finn cry was when the Cougars lost their most recent game, and he'd had a lot of money riding on his fantasy football league. She was a little embarrassed, but mostly touched by just how much he really cared for her.

_****____ ** ** _

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I should've gone with you..." Finn mumbled, coming to sit on the edge of the bed beside Clarke.

_****____ ** ** _

Her eyes crinkled with sympathy as she clasped Finn's face in her hands and kissed his forehead lightly. And as she drew her boyfriend's head lower, she caught sight of Lexa looking slightly abashed and crestfallen. But just like many times before, a mask as hard as flint appeared on her face and she disappeared out the partially open door amidst the animated talking of her family members as they hovered protectively around Clarke.

_****____ ** ** _


	7. Opening The Floodgates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lexa and Clarke take a walk down Memory Lane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter with Lexa sucking snake venom out of Clarke's leg like a boss :-P I'm super into my countryside romances and Westerns all of a sudden. I blame my parents and their love of 'Bonanza', lol. I apologise if the next few updates come in slowly. I'm still figuring out the subtleties that is AO3's formatting and coding. And now, back to more fluffy Clexa!

Several days flew by with everyone fussing over Clarke, long after she'd moved back into Finn's bedroom again.

Everyone save for Lexa.

She always seemed to be gone from the house whenever Clarke woke up in the mornings and went to bed long after the sun had set. After that surreal moment where they hadn't been fighting right after she'd been bitten by a snake, Clarke found that she almost missed the snarky comments Finn's cousin sent her way just for coming from the city.

As it turned out, Lexa wasn't avoiding her like she initially thought. There had been a series of bad thunder storms that had occurred in recent days, damaging several farms in the near vicinity. Lexa had been assisting some of the neighbours with fixing electrical outlets in their homes or repairing damage done to their barns or rooftops because of the severe lightning strikes.

Even if she'd never admit it to anyone, Clarke did miss seeing Finn's surly cousin clomping around the family home at regular intervals. That was until the rest of the family were called in to help with the neighbouring farms too.

"Why do you have to go again?" Clarke couldn't resist asking her boyfriend for the umpteenth time.

The house was bustling with activity as everyone (save for Octavia plopped down beside her on the living room sofa reading an issue of Cosmopolitan cover to cover) ran around collecting necessary tools and equipment.

"Because apparently I'm good at lifting things," Finn teased comically with an impish smile on his face.

"Actually, I just said that to be polite. You couldn't even bench-press Dave Bautista's left pinky," Bellamy butted in, clapping his younger brother hard on the shoulder. Finn rolled his eyes at his muscular brother's back while Clarke giggled at his expense.

"How long are you gonna be gone for?" she asked of him, feeling decidedly vulnerable in the moment.

"Not sure. Might be a night – might be a couple nights depending on the extent of the damage of the neighbouring farms." Finn rattled off while gathering a backpack in his arms.

Clarke thought it was a miracle that a similar fate hadn't befallen Finn's family home and the farm itself. But before his untimely death at the age of 72 a few years prior, Finn's grandfather had the foresight of reinforcing the current structure and architecture of Polis Farm to withstand strong winds and other extreme elements of Mother Nature.

"Come on, everyone!" Rob Blake bellowed from outside.

"That man's going to give himself a heart attack from all that yelling," Finn's mom grumbled more to herself as she slipped into a neon orange vest over her golf shirt.

"I'll call and text every day, promise. Besides, Octavia will be here. And so will Lexa."

A swooping sensation fluttered through Clarke's chest at the mention of her boyfriend's cousin. Clark had assumed that Lexa would continue helping her family on the neighbouring farms in Arkadia. But Finn's father had asked Lexa to stay behind and take care of Polis while they were away and Lexa had acquiesced in her usual, stoic manner. Apart from Octavia, Clark and Lexa would be alone in the house together. Clarke honestly couldn't think of any situation she'd endured so far in Lexa's presence that was worse than this.

"Right, of course. Lexa will be here..." Clarke murmured more to herself.

But Finn still heard and pressed an affectionate kiss on his girlfriend's freckled nose, staring deep into her blue eyes eyes.

"Play nice, ok?" he urged with a small smile on his face.

Clarke pulled Finn's head back down with her two hands and kissed him in earnest, if only just to reassure herself of everything they'd built up together as a couple in the past few months.

"I will," she promised.

"See you soon, I love you."

"Love you too."

After blowing her a kiss, Finn turned away and walked behind his grandmother, wondering silently why he felt a sudden trepidation about leaving.

Octavia waited for all of 5 minutes for her family to leave before she sprang up from the sofa with a cry of delight. She had been reading something quietly on her cellphone just moments before, so her sudden outburst took Clark completely by surprise.

"What's with you?" Clarke inquired with idle curiosity, looking up from the book she'd been reading.

"My boyfriend Lincoln just texted me. He doesn't have to work tonight! So I'm going to catch the bus to Washington DC to meet him!" Octavia proclaimed in ecstasy as she raced off to the bedroom down the hall. She nearly bowled Lexa over, who'd just exited the bathroom.

"What's with her?" Lexa asked of Clarke with her usual surly look in place.

"Her boyfriend texted. She's going to meet him in Washington DC." Clarke explained with a giggle.

"What? You're blowing us off to spend time with your bouncer from the night club?" Lexa fumed as her cousin exited her bedroom.

Octavia was now dressed in a skimpy, mini leather skirt, staggeringly high heels, a tight tank-top and a short-sleeved denim jacket. And she was applying a light layer of make-up as she gathered up her purse from the kitchen island.

"You see me all the time, Lexa," Octavia countered in a dismissive tone. "Plus, you're gonna have your hands full with the usual farm chores. Besides, I'll spend time with Clarke when I get back tomorrow. Or the next day..."

"Or the next day," Lexa finished, but with a mischievous smile on her face. Octavia pressed an affectionate kiss on Lexa's cheek in answer to this.

"Ooh, you and Clarke can bond over some farm work together. Or you know, just get attacked by Flaky again," Octavia teased. She narrowly dodged a swipe from Clarke, who was not amused in the least by the reference to that devilish chicken. "You two be good while I'm gone!" she greeted as she sped through the screen door. Clarke might have imagined it, but she could've sworn that Octavia had winked salaciously in their direction right before turning away to leave.

What had that been about?

Lexa shook her head and chuckled at her cousin's silly antics. Whoever heard of someone dropping everything at the last second just to spend time with the person they were dating? But her amusement was short-lived when she glanced at Clarke and realised that there was a big problem to resolve. How was she going to survive spending the next few days alone with her cousin's girlfriend? Her cousin's beautiful and unattainable girlfriend...

"So! We're alone..." Clarke said in an unnaturally high-pitched tone.

"Yes!" Lexa agreed, feeling beads of sweat forming in all the wrong places on her body. "Yes, we are..."

"What should we do?"

Lexa racked her brain for a few seconds before coming up with a solution that would suit them both. "Are you hungry?"

It took every vestige of Lexa's inner strength not to react positively when Clarke's crystal blue eyes shimmered with happiness.

"Actually, that sounds really good." Clarke admitted.

"Great. Let's have a picnic outside. But...only if you're up for it," Lexa added in a hasty tone. Even though it had been days since Clarke had been bitten by that snake, she still felt the need to be extra careful with her in case she shattered into a million pieces.

"I'm up for anything," the city girl said without any hesitation.

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

A little while later, Clarke was sent outside and instructed by Lexa to set down the blanket she'd given her on the neatly trimmed lawn. The place Lexa had chosen for their impromptu picnic was behind the Blake house on the western part of the estate. It was a tiny hillock of sorts that sloped upwards and flattened into a smooth plane of grass that the Blake Family often used for recreation like the odd game of baseball. From this vantage point, Clarke could see the surrounding farms encircling Polis in an emerald arc. The sky was opaline, suspended over scores of purplish-brown mountains racing in the distance towards the horizon.

Clarke laid the picnic blanket down. And when she was satisfied that there weren't any creases or folds left in the fabric from where she'd smoothed it out, she laid flat on her back and put on her sunglasses. Her eyes followed the subtle way that the breeze made the branches on the lemon trees a few yards away shiver and quake. She couldn't remember ever doing anything as frivolous as watching the wind blow back in the city. Just sitting outside and purposely whiling the time away because it was fun and relaxing. It felt oddly unsettling and nice all at once.

After running back several times to get cutlery and a host of other things from the kitchen, Lexa finally came to join her on the blanket. At first, they just sat quietly, eating the simple array of potato salad, green beans and leftover fried chicken without talking. But Clarke finally had enough and decided it was time she made good on her promise to her boyfriend to get to know his unreadable cousin.

"Tell me about yourself," she prompted without any preamble.

Lexa nearly choked on a green bean when she heard this. But this was mainly because Clarke had rolled onto her stomach as she spoke; and in that moment, the country girl had seen the tiniest flash of smooth, pale skin from Clarke's slim waist before it disappeared back into the creases of the woman's blue and white plaid shirt.

"You first," Lexa quipped before she could stop herself.

Clarke spluttered in astonishment at this response. Was Lexa a child or a fully grown woman?

"Wow. You really don't like being interrogated as much as you love to interrogate," Clarke retorted with a roguish smile on her face. The blonde grinned even more when Finn's surly cousin furrowed her eyebrows, not in sullenness, but in defeated contemplation.

"Alright, you have me there," Lexa conceded to Clarke's internal amazement. "But let's play 'Devil's Advocate' for a moment and say that I want to get to know you better."

"Finn didn't talk about me before you met me in person?" Clarke asked with genuine curiosity.

"He probably did, but I wasn't paying attention," Lexa admitted in that frank tone of hers that Clarke realised she'd not only gotten used to, but had actually begun to appreciate in a short span of time.

"Well, you know that I am an artist and that I went to Med School to become a doctor."

"But you decided not to go into medicine full time?" Lexa probed gently.

Clarke shook her head so fiercely that it made the country girl even more curious to know more.

"It wasn't nearly as simple as that," the blonde woman confessed, her shoulders taut with sudden tension. "My mom's a doctor and I always admired what she did, so much so that I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I did my medical degree at Georgetown and I was doing my residency at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the city with one year left to go before I became a fully fledged surgeon. But then my dad died three years ago and the world stopped making sense for a long while after that."

Lexa's mint-green eyes wrinkled with sadness and empathy when she heard this. More often than not, she thought she was the only person in the world who carried the loss of her parents everywhere she went. It was times like these which reminded her that there were other orphans in the world who felt just as burdened as she did.

"Clarke…I'm so sorry," Lexa said. She was stunned that she actually meant it, considering she and Finn's girlfriend didn't know each other that well. "How did he die?" she finally asked after what felt like years of silence.

Clarke shook herself from the sad memories and faced Lexa with what she hoped was a brave smile. "Stomach cancer. It was stage 4 already when he first got diagnosed, so there wasn't much the doctors could do for him at that point except to make him as comfortable as possible. He was always in pain for those last few months of his life; he could barely eat or sleep. Towards the end of it all, he just…floated away from me and my mom." She murmured, the agony of losing her father stabbing at her insides like barbed wire all over again. "My mom and I were the medical professionals and we didn't see any of it coming with my dad. He was always in such good health from when I was little and he loved being alive. After he died, I couldn't stand to be in the emergency room anymore. I was really depressed for a long time after that. One day, it ached so much that I couldn't take it. I grabbed an old sketch book and a pencil and I stabbed line after line into the page till I tore a hole right through the middle. After that, the angry scribbles became softer and clearer. I started to craft scenes and people from my pain until it began to hurt less and less every day."

"And thus, Wanheda was born…" Lexa trailed off poetically.

"Thus, Wanheda was born," Clarke agreed, a small smile forming on her lovely face.

"And your mom was ok with you quitting medicine?"

"Not at first, but she gets it now. Besides, I feel like what I do these days helps me to keep my dad close to me somehow."

That's when Lexa finally understood. "Your father was an artist too."

Clarke grinned in acknowledgement and Lexa swore that look was now her favourite expression in the world. "My dad injured his wrist and my mom was his doctor in the emergency room. He was only at the hospital for a few hours, but he kept drawing funny doodles on his medical chart because he was bored, which my mom thought was oddly endearing, even for a grown man. He kept coming to see her for weeks after that, and he always brought new drawings that he sketched just for her."

"That's sweet." Lexa remarked in earnest, smiling more and more as the conversation continued.

"I'm sure that my parents had their problems. But in my eyes, they were the perfect couple. I honestly don't know how my mom managed after my dad died, but she's always been so strong. She helped me a lot after my dad died by comforting me when I wanted it and space when I needed it. Finn's a lot like that too."

"Finn has a sensitive side? This is definitely news to me," Lexa teased dryly, which made Clarke chuckle.

"O-kay, so Finn has his moments when he asks me dumb questions like if I'm 'on my period' when he's clearly done something to upset me," The city girl conceded, which made Lexa laugh in turn. "But he's very sweet and has the biggest heart."

"I can agree with you about that," Lexa said with sincerity. And yet, her heart deflated bit by bit hearing the blonde beauty talk about her cousin with so much obvious devotion.

"Your turn," Clarke concluded with a triumphant smile on her face when she finished her bitter-sweet narrative.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you like? What do you dislike? What do you do for fun?"

"And why do you care?" Lexa couldn't resist asking, wiping the side of her mouth with a napkin.

"Because I'm curious about you," Clarke said. She re-positioned her elbows to stabilise herself better, keeping her face propped up with her hands while looking at Lexa.

The surly country girl could honestly say that no one had ever said anything like that to her before. She was just 'Lexa' to everyone. Always there to lend a helping hand when anyone needed it. She was steady and consistent. But was that all there was to her personality?

Shouldn't there be...more?

"I don't know..." Lexa trailed off in a hapless tone.

She stopped short when she realised just how intently Finn's girlfriend was watching her. Like she really wanted to know if there was more to Lexa Blake than met the eye. It was both unnerving and oddly flattering for the dark-haired beauty.

"I've only ever grown up in the countryside. I know everything there is to know about working on a farm, taking care of plants and animals. Is there anything else?" Lexa finally said, silently cursing how depressing her statement sounded.

"Of course there is. There's a whole world out there," Clarke declared, sitting up again.

"For you, maybe," Lexa retorted.

Clarke shook her head and the country girl immediately thought that she'd yet again said something completely offensive to the other girl. Instead, she was surprised when Finn's girlfriend put her pale hand over hers resting on the blanket beneath them.

"Not just me," Clarke elaborated, keeping her eyes fixed on Lexa. "The world is for anyone who wants to live and be happy in it. Especially you."

"And you suddenly care about my happiness, Clarke Griffin?" Lexa questioned, her eyes turning serious.

Clarke gulped subtly, revelling inwardly in the fact that the born and bred country girl's dark eyes could convey so much emotion without saying that many words. She cleared her throat and began picking at a few shoots of wild grass beneath the picnic blanket, crumbling the green stems in her hands.

"I'm mostly…curious about your happiness. I mean, you had that girl hanging all over at you at Grounders a week ago. What's the story there?"

It took Lexa a few seconds before comprehension dawned on her face. "You mean Costia? That was nothing, she's…" She sighed when Clarke continued gazing at her with a penetrating look. "The thing is, I'm…what I mean is, I…sort of, like…"

"You like women?" Clarke supplied.

Lexa turned varying shades of pink before she gave a mute nod in answer to the blonde's question.

"Lexa, I'm a born and bred city girl. A few of my female friends are…that way too. So it's no big deal." Clarke said with simplicity.

Reassured of this, Lexa continued. "I liked Costia for a while. That's the name of the girl from the bar. She works in the local hardware store a few miles from here. She flirts a lot with me and I guess I thought that she liked me too."

"What happened?"

"Nothing much in the end. As it turned out, I wanted something more and Costia wanted…considerably less. So I gave up on her." Lexa replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Just like that? But you liked her so much."

"I did. But I've never been good at playing the field; it's just not my style. So Costia flirts with me constantly, thinking that she'll magically change my mind eventually. And I just don't have the heart or the energy to tell her that she's wasting her time."

Clarke took all of this in wordlessly. She couldn't understand why the knowledge that Lexa and Costia weren't a couple was a relief to her though.

"Well, it's Costia's loss then," was all that Clarke finally said, which drew another genuine smile from Lexa. "The one and only time that I ever played the field was in senior year of high school. And I did a hack job of it that I lost two potential dates to Prom in one night," she joked, which made Lexa laugh heartily in response.

"Poor you. So did you end up going to Prom alone?"

"No, my friend Murphy ended up being my date. He's a snarky idiot, but he made me laugh my head off all night and got me roaringly drunk too on top of everything. So I ended up having a blast." Clarke concluded with a bright smile on her face.

"And all of this fun and mayhem happened in San Francisco?" Lexa questioned, deciding to change the subject. Clarke nodded at the question and Lexa continued. "Are you happy in Washington DC now?"

"I love both Frisco and D.C for the most part. But I have to say...Arkadia has its perks too." Clarke admitted, a smile of contentment forming on her face.

Lexa inwardly thought that smiling suited Clarke Griffin's beautiful face the best out of all the other looks in the world. Something about Clarke's smile inspired a truthful answer out of the stubborn country girl.

"I like taking pictures!" Lexa blurted out without thinking.

"Huh?"

"Pictures. I like taking pictures. You asked me what I do for fun – that's it."

Before Clarke could inquire further, Lexa got up suddenly and went inside. She returned a minute later holding a silver and chique looking digital camera which she handed somewhat shyly to the city girl.

Clarke took it from her, smiling quizzically as she switched it on. There were many pictures of the picturesque landscape itself and numerous ones of Pearl. Most of them were in colour. But Lexa had tweaked some of the pictures, setting them to greyscale and sepia tones instead.

"Lexa, these are beautiful..." Clarke mumbled in awe, scrolling through more and more as she talked.

She smiled in particular at a selfie Lexa had taken of herself. The wind was catching in her hair, a frown painted on her lovely face. If only she smiled more...

"It's just a hobby," Lexa mumbled self-consciously.

"A beautiful hobby then," Clarke amended with another smile that made Lexa's stomach clench in a swirling mesh of pleasure-pain. "You must really love Pearl a lot to take so many pictures of her." She added a moment later.

"I do," Lexa conceded with a small smile. "It seems silly, but that horse is like my best friend in the whole wide world. My parents gave her to me before they died. She's the only thing that's...still around to remind me of them."

Clarke's heart twisted in agony at those words.

"The day they died, I was angry at them. They promised we were going to have a picnic together because my birthday was coming soon, but instead they sent me to Anya's house for the day. I know now why they did; they were trying to protect me because the flood coming was going to be a bad one. When they tried to hug me goodbye outside of Anya's house, I pushed them both away and said I hated them. That was the last thing I ever said to them before it happened. And after the funeral, a delivery van came here to my aunt and uncle's house with Pearl in it. It was supposed to be a surprise from my parents for my birthday since I'd always wanted to learn how to ride a horse. They spent half their meagre savings on getting Pearl for me. That's why I'm so attached to Pearl. It's the only way I can thank my mom and dad for loving me that much."

Lexa was stunned when Clarke seemed to move even closer, pressing her head against her arm as they sat together.

"Your parents sound like they were pretty amazing." She whispered in a husky voice against Lexa's skin.

"They were," Lexa agreed, an earnest smile appearing on her face. "I wish you could've met them. You would've-"

She stopped short when she realised that Clarke had fallen asleep, covering her shoulder with a curtain of ash blonde hair which the country girl suddenly longed to run her hands through.

Instead, Lexa chuckled in amusement to herself and moved Clarke's head tentatively so that it was resting more comfortably on her thigh.

And she sat like that for a while, watching her cousin's girlfriend sleep peacefully.


	8. Watching The Fireflies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke and Lexa give vent to their true feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed chapter 7, you guys are the best! Clexa are finally letting down their guard and getting to know each other better - I love my romantic fluff so much! Grah, I'm so single it hurts :-P Because I got a special request from Shay earlier, I'll be nice and release one more chapter before I hit the hay tonight. Hope you all like it!

Clarke came to several hours later as the sun made its final descent behind the dark mountains with their swirls of trees dotting the highlands at every turn.

"Lexa?" she cried out with uncertainty.

Luckily, Finn's cousin wasn't too far away and heard her voice.

"Hey! You're awake," Lexa noted. Clarke was surprised by the sudden earnestness of the smile thrown her way. It made her bones tingle with pleasure.

"Where did you go?" the city girl couldn't resist asking with a touch of vulnerability.

"I just went to close the curtains in the house for a few minutes. But I promise I was here with you for the whole time before while you were asleep." Lexa answered.

"Thank you. Your lap is a really good pillow." Clarke mumbled self-consciously.

"You're welcome. Are you still tired?"

Clarke thought it over for a few seconds, stretching out her stiff muscles as she did so.

"Actually, no. I feel really well rested."

"Do you want to come take a walk with me? There's something I want to show you." Lexa declared, her cheeks feeling distinctly hot.

"Is it far?" Clarke questioned, rising to her feet and dusting off her shorts.

Lexa shook her head and instinctively held out her hand for Clarke to hold onto. And she wasn't disappointed when Clarke obliged her, entwining their fingers together. The pressure of that close contact was both terrifying and soothing all at once for the born and bred country girl.

Lexa tentatively led Clarke back towards the front of the house. They descended the wooden staircase which opened out onto the gravel road Clarke had found herself on when she and Finn had first come here. Then they walked slowly through a grove of small ferns, the loud chirps of crickets and frogs being the only sounds they could hear in the inviting darkness.

"We're not going to pick blueberries again, are we?" Clarke couldn't help teasing in a sardonic tone.

Lexa chuckled loudly at this as she kept her eyes rooted in front of her in case of stray twigs and boulders lying in their path. "It's too dark to pick blueberries," she quipped, but without malice this time around. "No, this is something...very different."

Clarke was puzzled when Lexa stopped abruptly and grabbed her hand suddenly. Then a soft yellow light darted past her line of sight, joined moments later by similar flitting beams of light that gathered over a dark shape in front of them.

And she finally understood.

"Fireflies," she whispered in awe.

They were everywhere, bumping repeatedly against her skinny arm as they flew with eagerness to a series of bushes that stood in front of them. Clarke let go of Lexa's hand and darted forward, spinning in a circle of pure elation as she gazed in wonder at the glowing creatures flying past her. Lexa stood watching her cousin's girlfriend, marvelling at the way that the fireflies swarmed around her like twinkling lights of newness and ageless beauty.

When Clarke finally stopped clapping and watching the fireflies, she turned back to face Lexa with a radiant smile on her face. "How do you know about this place?"

"My dad used to bring me here when I was a child," Lexa explained, walking slowly towards Clarke with a smaller blanket clasped in her left hand.

Before elaborating further, she first came to stand beside Clarke, wrapping the blanket around both their shoulders with the wind blowing through the trees turned as swift as ice.

"He and my mom used to come here a lot when they first started dating. It was their 'special place', somewhere just for the two of them to be alone and get lost in each other." She concluded with wistful solemnity.

"It's beautiful," Clarke said, her eyes fastened on the fireflies.

"You were right before." Clarke turned to face Lexa again with a questioning look. "I don't know anything about being in love. Coming here is the closest I ever get to it. And even then, I'm just living vicariously through what my parents had with each other." Lexa said, feeling strangely choked up in the moment.

No one in the whole wide world knew this about her. No one except a stranger who'd come into her life unexpectedly and turned everything upside down.

Clarke didn't know what made her do it. One minute, she was standing beside Lexa with her fists clenched at her sides, gazing at the silvery moon and the fireflies dancing in an opulent stream together with the thin blanket still draped around their shoulders.

The next minute, she turned to her left and knocked the blanket loose, locking her small hands around Lexa's angular cheeks as she fused their lips together. Electricity sparked and flickered to life with every touch of their city girl's mouth pushing and pulling against that of the rigid country girl's.

Every pulsing and frenzied movement of the shorter woman's had enough potency to power a flour mill. Clarke got lost in the feel of Lexa wrapping all around her like a heated cloak, even though the latter hadn't actually touched her or kissed her back since it first began.

And when breathing become a necessity, she reluctantly dragged her lips back from the brink of ecstasy, leaving only the whispered imprints of their existence on the cusp of Lexa's startled mouth. The truth of that was written all over the taller woman's face when Clarke finally met her gaze. That's when she knew she'd done something irrevocably stupid in the heat of the moment.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, I don't know what-" Her legs moved of their accord as she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over the blanket strewn across the path of long grass. And then Clarke started running as fast as her legs could take, far away from Finn's intoxicating cousin.

But her efforts were in vain when a hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her back a few seconds later. Even more astonishing was the look of scorching anger painted on Lexa's face while she held Clarke in place.

"Why...are you always trying to get away from me?" the enigmatic country girl muttered half to herself.

"I...I don't know," Clarke mumbled self-consciously, wishing she could melt into the ground. She'd just kissed Finn's cousin. Her boyfriend's cousin, who was another woman. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Clarke whispered in a bleak tone, feeling hot tears forming in her eyes.

"No...you shouldn't have," Lexa agreed in a quiet voice.

Clarke didn't know whether she wanted to cry from humiliation or because she wanted to kiss Lexa again. But the feeling forming in the pit of her stomach was growing stronger and more feral like an unbound tiger let loose from its cage. What was happening to her?

"I shouldn't have done that," Clarke repeated in a hollow voice. "And you shouldn't have been so nice to me. Especially when you don't even like me," She couldn't resist adding.

"Hang on," Lexa quipped with impatience. "Who said I didn't like you?" Clarke cocked her head towards her boyfriend's cousin, at a loss of how to answer. Surely it had been apparent to her and everyone else with the way Lexa spoke to her or refused to make eye contact whenever she was near?

"You made fun of my job," was all that Clarke could think to respond with.

"Yes, I did," Lexa agreed in that same flat, inscrutable tone. "But you did accurately point out that I'm kind of a bitch."

"I didn't mean that, I was just upset." Clarke was quick to say.

"You were right though," Lexa conceded with a strange half smile that stunned the older city girl.

"You always seem so angry whenever you're forced to be around me..." Clarke stammered, feeling her cheeks grow white hot with sheer embarrassment as Lexa inched closer to her. So close that she bumped unexpectedly against the rough bark of a tree just behind her.

"Clarke..."

The shorter woman was struck by the tone of sadness in the dark-haired woman's voice as she said her name. Then she gasped in awe when Lexa moved well into her personal space and cupped her cheeks with trembling hands.

"What I feel for you is just the opposite of what you thought," she whispered into the night. "If I seemed or felt angry whenever you were close to me, it was because I was angry that I had no claim to you. No reason or right to feel the bubble of happiness deep inside me whenever you're around."

Clarke had no idea how to respond to that, her eyes fixed on Lexa's dragging slowly over her lips in that strange half-light of the moon and the fireflies buzzing sweetly all around them.

Lexa cleared her throat, feeling hot and tingly all over her trembling body. Everything but Clarke felt wrong and chaotic. But she wanted all of it for herself, something she could honestly say she'd never craved before with anything or anyone.

And before she knew that she was being incredibly selfish and reckless with every inch of her body, that same body was moving forward and wrapping around Clarke's lithe frame as Lexa finally gave vent to weeks of torment and kissed her cousin's breath-taking girlfriend.

It was the kind of kiss that started off as intense and achingly sweet as a raging waterfall that rushed over the edge and swept like silk over the rocks below. They closed their eyes and gave in, Clarke's hands coming to rest on Lexa's arms as the latter held her close and with certainty as their heads dipped and lips met in a tangled stream of wanting.

Clarke gasped in a mesh of awe and arousal when Lexa grabbed hold of her hips and lifted her into her arms. The country girl wrapped Clarke's sensuous legs tightly around her back as she walked them both through that patch of grass and back up the hill towards her family home, the moon being their only guiding light.

Clarke gazed at Lexa with a renewed sense of wonder as the country girl walked them through the screen door left ajar and over the threshold of the living room. The blonde artist clasped her hands tightly around Lexa's neck while staring deep into her emerald green eyes, her soul swirling into chaotic desire.

They made it up the stairs in no time and into Lexa's small bedroom. Clarke was amazed by how neat and organised everything was, from the few books that were piled onto the shelf in the corner to the tiny picture frames that decorated the desk off to the right.

But there was nothing neat or organised about the way that Lexa put her back down on her feet and brought their bodies excruciatingly close together, her keen eyes raking over the shorter woman's lips with insatiable curiosity.

And just like before, it was Clarke making the first move, palming the ridges of Lexa's shoulders and fusing their lips together. This was very different from the first time she kissed Lexa just minutes ago.

This was far more gentle and cautious, yet so torridly assuring. Clarke had definitely never felt anything like this when she kissed Finn. She sat down on the edge of the bed and hastily lifted up part of Lexa's shirt. Lexa flung her head back and groaned sharply when she felt the older girl's lips tracing their own scrawled design of ardour over her quivering stomach. Every touch of Clarke's lips was like fire on her molten skin as she undid every single one of the buttons on Lexa's shirt without hesitation.

And when they were finally laid bare before each other, a lone tear fell from Lexa's eye. She gripped Clarke's hand in hers and ran it over the cleft of her cheek through parted eyelids as they lay together on her bed.

"I was never angry with you. Only angry with myself..." Lexa whispered with painstaking misery that made Clarke want to cry too.

"Ssh," Clarke chided in a bid to cheer the younger woman up. She scooted towards her and pressed a loving kiss on Lexa's forehead. "It's ok," Clarke whispered, even though she knew full well that wasn't the case. "Come here."

Lexa's movements were tentative, but she inched achingly closer to the city girl. Clarke put her free hand over Lexa's hand clasping her other hand and brought it to her own lips. Then she disentangled their entwined fingers and wrapped them instead around Lexa's neck, pulling her back down till she was on top of her, their eyes just a whisper apart.

"Don't think anymore," Clarke urged with sudden clarity. "Make me yours."

And that's exactly what Lexa did as her lips travelled at a snail's pace over the shorter woman's smooth skin, her hands darting forward and latching onto the soft mounds on Clarke's chest.

Even though the house was devoid of life save for the two hearts joining and pulsing in harmonious desire, Clarke still tried her best to muffle her cries of pending release as Lexa's sensual mouth travelled over her aching mounds and lower still to where she craved her most.

The city girl's bony fingers tangled helplessly in the country girl's lovely honey-brown locks as the very hairs on her pale skin started to sing with pleasure. Clarke's back arched towards the headboard as the bed creaked and moaned like a ghostly echo of what transpired above its metallic springs.

Lexa's eyes rolled deep into their sockets with insurmountable ecstasy as she let herself inhale the heady scent of Clarke fill her nostrils. It spilled from the young woman's silvery beaded pores into the sinewy threads of her own pounding heart as her mouth carved a frenetic sculpture over the city girl's sensuous love handles.

It wasn't long before that visitor to the family estate was pulling her newfound lover back up to eye level so that they could keep kissing. Their fingers curved and entwined on either side of their writhing bodies as they made love again and again with brazen wonder throughout the night.


	9. Spinning The Web

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lexa and Clarke explore their newfound feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! A big thank you to Shay and penny95 for reviewing chapter 8 :-D Now that Clexa have crossed the line, what will happen next? Read more to find out ;-)

After the swelling heat of the night and its sinful frivolities, Clarke felt a strange chill when she woke up in Lexa's bed the next morning. That was because the usual occupant of the bed wasn't currently lying beside her, beneath her, wrapped up in her, like before.

Clarke tried to suppress the thawing sensation of disappointment floating through her stomach as she pushed the dishevelled tendrils of hair out of her tired face. Dishevelled tendrils that Lexa had run her impatient hands through at every turn of the pale moonlight flitting over their trembling bodies.

She was barely aware of the smile that had crept onto her dry lips as she thought about what had transpired between her and Finn's cousin the night before. On one level, Clarke felt overwhelmingly guilty and heart sore for betraying her boyfriend who loved her a lot. But on another level, she wanted to live in this achingly sweet and uninhibited moment for a little while longer, at least till the world came crashing down all around her.

Clarke sighed and got out of the warm bed, looking around the sparsely decorated room for something to wear, completely ignoring her discarded clothes lying strewn on the wooden floor. She smiled when she opened the first drawer she saw and found a thin and faded baggy grey T-shirt and a pair of filmy black hot pants shoved into the corner. They smelled clean and woodsy, much like the scent she'd grown accustomed to smelling on Lexa.

Clarke flirted with calling out to Lexa, but she stopped herself. Even though the house was empty save for the two of them, it still felt wrong to make her presence and what they did last night known to the wooden architecture alone.

So she settled for walking quietly out of Lexa's bedroom, her bare feet making no sound on the wooden tiles. Her search ended quickly when she spotted a mane of brown hair perched on a tanned, statuesque body standing on the wooden staircase outside in the garden.

It was Lexa and she was sipping dolefully on a mug of steaming black coffee. 

She'd woken up hours ago and taken to staring at Clarke's peaceful features as the girl slept on after the torrid events of the night before.

It had been exquisite, every single part of it. Lexa had often thought about what it would feel like to be with another woman in an intimate setting. But the opportunity to make that thought a reality hadn't even crossed her mind till she met Clarke Griffin. And it had surpassed her expectations for better or worse.

Clarke was delicate and passionate. Elegant and wild.

But she was still Finn's girlfriend.

And they'd slept together, more than once.

Lexa was beginning to think she felt guiltier about watching Clarke sleep and stroking the soft contours of her porcelain skin afterwards than actually having sex with her to begin with. She sighed and sipped quietly on her mug of bitter coffee.

"Morning." She spun around in fright and caught sight of Clarke standing a little behind her, just out of reach. And wearing her wardrobe. Despite the crumby circumstances, Lexa couldn't resist smiling about this.

"Morning," she murmured back, her heart fluttering in her chest like winged moths. "How did you sleep?"

"Well," Clarke said, coming just a little closer as she spoke. She was being extra careful, not wanting to scare Lexa off, not when things needed to be said and done. "I slept very well," Clarke went on as she came to stand beside Lexa. "You?"

Lexa took an insanely long time to answer. "I slept well too," she finally mumbled out, gulping more burning coffee down her throat.

If she thought that looking at Clarke was hard before any of this happened, it was even harder now knowing exactly what Clarke's body looked like beneath flimsy thread and cotton. They both took to staring at the mountains in the distance that were painted in vivid hues of purple and brown, the sounds of birds filling up the awkward gaps of silence.

"I was...disappointed when I woke up and...you weren't there," Clarke found herself saying after a long while.

Only then did Lexa finally dare to look at her. "I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep, and I needed to think." She explained, a gnawing feeling of dread creeping through her bones.

"Do you regret what happened last night?" Clarke asked point-blank.

Even though her whole body was screaming at her to stop, Lexa finally closed the gap between them, resting her tanned hands on the city girl's shoulders. "The only thing I regret is not regretting any of it. I don't regret you at all," Lexa said with unswerving earnestness.

And that was all it took for Clarke to pull her closer and leave a chaste kiss on her lips. Then she just hugged the country girl, letting her hands circle the back of Lexa's neck while the other swept over the blonde-haired beauty's lower back.

Lexa let her lips rest against the side of Clarke's head, inhaling that rich smell of flowery shampoo that had left its benign residue in the shorter woman's hair. When they finally parted, Clarke whimpered with pleasure at the way that Lexa stroked the curve of her jaw line with her calloused fingertips.

"What do you want to do today?" Lexa asked with quiet resignation as she stared deep into Clarke's eyes.

The city girl only had to think about it for a few seconds before she made up her mind.

"Take me for a ride on Pearl."

And just like that, she tugged on Lexa's hand with insistent possessiveness till they were walking back inside the house.

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

They spent a few more days like this together with only one interruption when Octavia called Lexa to say she'd be staying in Washington DC a little longer. But neither her cousin nor Clarke seemed to mind.

Lexa and Clarke grew more comfortable with each other in this strange new dynamic that they had formed overnight. The city girl was even delighted when Finn's previously surly cousin even showed her how to do some of the farm chores like milking the cows, picking apples in the orchard and taking a ride on the tractor while inspecting the wheat fields.

They spent all of their time together taking long walks or long rides on the horses throughout the tiny farming region surrounding Finn's family home. And when the night drew near, Clarke gave up on sleeping alone in Finn's bedroom and ended up lying in Lexa's arms instead in her bed till the rooster crowed early during those summery mornings. They were lost in their own world of tranquillity for those precious few days.

This wasn't lost on Raven and Anya, who popped over unexpectedly during one of those days, carrying a six-pack of beer and some playing cards.

"You do realise it's 11:00, right?" Lexa asked dryly, arching one of her elegant eyebrows in the direction of Anya's tankard of beer that she'd propped onto the wooden coffee table in the living room.

Anya rolled her eyes and plopped herself down next to Lexa, making sure that her elbow caught Finn's surly cousin sharply in the stomach as she made her descent.

"It's my day off from work and I wanna let loose a little, sue me."

"But you work in a bar. Doesn't being surrounded booze all day long get kinda boring after a while?" Clarke queried with curiosity while examining the cards in her hands and trying to figure out if she had a winning hand or not.

"Are you kidding? That's exactly why Anya drinks," Raven joked. "That and Nico's constant stocktaking of the bar coasters."

"That right there turned me instantly into a day-drinker," Anya rejoined, which got the four of them laughing hard.

They were playing poker. With that said, no one was trying terribly hard to win since they were more focused on exchanging the latest news. This involved talking about the weather (mainly the latest bout of thunderstorms and damage done to the roads and farms) and the latest country gossip involving Jasper, Anya and Raven's mutual friend, who'd been sent to a neighbouring farm to fix an irrigation pipe and had been caught in bed with said neighbour's wife instead.

"Jasper really is an idiot," Raven chortled, even after hearing that story about five times already.

"Don't be so hard on the guy. In all fairness, he did go and fix a pipe. It just happened to be his own." Clarke supplied.

There was dead silence for at least three seconds before anyone in the room registered that Clarke had told a joke, and a dirty one at that. Anya spat out of a mouthful of beer while Raven thumped her hand on the coffee table, laughing her head off. Lexa sniggered too, casting a few sidelong glances at the sly grin currently painted on Clarke's face.

"Clarke Griffin: beautiful, talented, and funny as shit too. Was Finn hiding you under a rock this entire time?" Anya questioned after her own laughter had finally subsided.

"Probably," Lexa couldn't resist saying in a sardonic tone.

Clarke blushed profusely at this, knowing full well that Lexa had gotten caught in an unveiled moment of jealousy. Anya and Raven on the other hand, started laughing even more at the fact that Lexa had turned her insults onto Finn instead of on Clarke this time.

"Whoa, did you hear that, Anya?" Raven asked with faux melodrama.

"I declare I surely did!" Anya answered, putting on more of an exaggerated southern drawl as she spoke, which made Clarke laugh.

"Lexa's not making fun of Clarke for a change. Come to think of it, Lexa's been pretty nice to Clarke for a while now. When did that happen?" Raven demanded, leaning forward to poke Lexa's bony shoulders.

Lexa scowled and fended off Raven's attacks while trying not to make eye contact with Clarke. If Raven or Anya got any closer to her, she was worried they'd be able to hear how loud her heart was beating in that moment.

Clarke took pity on Lexa's plight and decided to come to her rescue. "What are you guys talking about? Lexa's always nice."

"Good one, Clarke. You've clearly become a day-drinker too," Anya teased.

"I'm being serious. Lexa was nice enough to show me how to do some farm work recently. And she killed a snake that bit me one time." Clark supplied.

"Um, as I can recall, that snake is still very much alive and roaming the countryside as we speak," Lexa said in an off-hand way.

And yet, both Raven and Anya saw it when Lexa's eyes lifted and met Clarke's gaze, the two of them sharing a smile which began slowly and gained momentum with every passing second.

"Well, for what it's worth, we're glad you're finally getting to see Lexa's softer side, Clarke. It's about damn time too," Raven said with surprising earnestness. Her fingers, which had been jabbing Lexa's shoulder mercilessly, now rested instead on the country girl's knee in a show of solidarity.

Clarke used that moment of distraction between the two friends to her advantage when she realised that she had a Royal Flush and promptly won the game.

While Raven and Anya complained profusely about a supposed 'Code of Honour' when it came to playing poker, Lexa simply shook her head and shared another lingering smile with Clarke.

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

Sadly, Clarke and Lexa's days of bliss on Polis Farm came to an end when the rest of Finn's family returned and startled them in the middle of a tickling fight the next day. Clarke and Lexa were sprawled out on a soft rug on the living room floor playfully wrestling with each other when Finn's parents walked through the screen door, followed by Finn's grandmother, Bellamy, Finn himself and finally Octavia, which was a surprise in itself. She'd been gone from home for close to a week without anyone knowing or caring.

"What's this?" Sue asked laughingly of the pair on the floor as they hurriedly got to their feet with mutual looks of chagrin on their feet.

"I guess Flaky brought them together after all," Bellamy remarked with a loud guffaw, giving Lexa an affectionate pat on the back.

Then Finn dropped his backpack on the floor and encircled Clarke in a tight and loving embrace. "I missed you so much," he breathed against her neck while he held her close.

"Yeah, me too..." Clarke trailed off with uncertainty, finding it difficult to recognise anything remotely familiar or tangible about the way that her own boyfriend was holding her in his arms, like he'd done a million times over before.

"I'm glad to see the two of you finally getting along." Finn remarked, an innocent smile playing on his handsome face, referring to his girlfriend and cousin's silly antics just moments before.

"I guess you were right," Clarke said, drawing him into a sweet embrace as she spoke. "I just needed to be alone with Lexa to see how great she really is."

Her eyes locked on Lexa, who was standing stiffly in the doorway as if she'd been turned to stone, watching her cousin and his girlfriend's open displays of affection with twisting revulsion. Then she turned away and walked off, leaving Clarke spilling over with a mixture of regret and desire.


	10. Cutting The Cord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke, Finn and Lexa stop lying to themselves and each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I hope you're all having groovy Saturdays :-P A big thank you to the following people who have reviewed 'Wild Country' since the beginning: ddramallama, Rex, red23111, penny95, Shay, Javlalebb and ClexaDeserveBetter. You guys are better than drugs :'-) I'm going to upload two angsty chapters today, you have been forewarned. But don't despair, for none can compare, to Clexa because they are sweeter than chocolate eclairs. 
> 
> That rhyme scheme was terrible :-S I'll see myself out now. 
> 
> Enjoy the chapters! <3

It was three days later and Clarke was sobbing uncontrollably as she wheeled her suitcase haphazardly towards the front door of the house. Under any other circumstances, it would've been funny watching Finn trail closely behind her in nothing but his boxer shorts, his hair completely dishevelled and only wearing one sock on his foot.

But not tonight.

Nothing was remotely alright tonight.

"Clarke, would you just stop for a second so we can talk about this?!" Finn pleaded in an irate voice.

In truth, he wasn't nearly as angry as he sounded. He was deeply confused about what had happened. Clarke had been acting strangely ever since he had returned with the rest of his family a few days ago after helping the neighbouring farms repair the damage done by the storms of late.

She'd been distant and not nearly as affectionate as her usual self. And just when they'd finally made some progress on an intimate level, Clarke had freaked out and started packing her suitcase in a flash.

Finn finally had enough and grabbed Clarke's wrist, forcing her to stop and look at him. "What the hell is going on with you?! One minute, everything is fine and we were kissing. And now you're saying you want to leave. I don't understand!" he declared in a ringing voice.

Quite frankly, neither did Clarke. She wasn't supposed to feel like being with Finn was tantamount to betraying Lexa on some level. But that was exactly how she felt and it was time to stop pretending. She'd put up a good front (or so she'd thought) for days with Finn and the rest of the family. She had avoided Lexa completely. Or had Lexa been avoiding her?

Clarke honestly wasn't sure anymore.

She'd thought she could quash the burning feelings of passion that Lexa had wrought in her earlier when she'd settled on top of Finn's wiry frame and kissed him with aggressive intensity.

But as soon as Finn had actually started getting into it, Clarke was struck by how different his kisses were from Lexa's. That's when she had stopped and all she wanted was to get away from all of it.

From both Finn and Lexa.

"I don't understand either," Clarke admitted, wiping away at her tears with the back of her hand. "I should never have come here."

"Why? What happened to make you so upset? Everything was fine before. We were fine before." Finn remonstrated, looking strangely close to tears too.

By this point, everyone in the house had emerged from their rooms, looking disgruntled and confused by the sudden commotion pervading the cedar walls.

"What's going on?" Mr. Blake demanded in that gruff voice of his.

"Can't you tell, Dad? They're having a 'domestic'," Bellamy supplied through tufts of mussed up hair and red-rimmed eyes.

"A 'domestic'? Why can't you just call it a 'fight' like other Americans? Someone's getting way into _Downton Abbey_ these days…" Octavia trailed with an eye-roll.

"Hey, Maggie Smith is a European treasure, O!"

"We're not fighting," Finn snapped with impatience. "Can everyone please go back to their rooms? Clarke and I are fine."

"No we aren't, Finn," Clarke said with sudden melancholy. "I thought we were for the longest time. But we just aren't anymore." Lexa came into the living room at that precise moment and locked eyes with Clarke, her whole body bubbling with curiosity and dread.

"Look, can we just go back into our room and talk about this?" Finn pleaded, laying a calm hand on Clarke's arm.

But she shook him off, the force of her betrayal rank and putrid to her senses as she shrank away from her boyfriend. "I can't. I'm sorry I'm doing this to you now, and in front of your family. But I can't be with you anymore. Even if you don't understand, please just let me go. It's what's best for both of us." Clarke had nearly said 'for the three of us', but that would've been far too dangerous. The only thing worse than betraying Finn was confessing who she'd betrayed him with.

"Clarke-"

"I'll find my own way to the bus stop from here. Thank you for your hospitality. I'm...so sorry," Clarke told the rest of Finn's family, who stood staring back at her in utter bewilderment. Everyone save for Lexa, whose eyes had formed with silent tears. Tears for her cousin's broken heart, and for her own too.

And then Clarke was pushing her suitcase ahead of her through the screen door, wearing only a pair of shorts, a tank-top and flip-flops.

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

Two months after Clarke had left Arkadia abruptly and gone back to Washington DC, it was Finn's turn to leave the family home in a swirling mass of anger and confusion, followed closely by his cousin Lexa.

"Finn, will you please stop and talk to me?!" Lexa begged through hysterical tears.

She never liked showing her emotions in front of anyone, least of all her family. But it was spilling out of her like a rampant volcano, impossible to quell.

It had begun over dinner when Finn had come to visit Polis Farm and told the rest of the family he was determined to get Clarke back no matter what it took.

Then out of nowhere, he had blatantly accused Lexa of doing or saying something to Clarke to make her break up with him suddenly, just like she'd done with all of his previous girlfriends. When the verbal sparring had become extremely volatile and Lexa's innocents protests weren't enough, she finally threw caution to the wind and told her cousin the truth about what had happened between her and Clarke.

It had been ill-timed and cruel, she knew that much. But Lexa had been agonising over it for two months without any respite and she was worn out from living a lie. And now Finn was storming out of the house in a mad fury.

Lexa made the mistake of grabbing his hand in a bid to make him stay. However, that only made him angrier and this was made plain when he shoved his cousin as far away from him as possible.

"Finn?!" Octavia gasped in horror. She came to stand next to Lexa, who was trembling from head to toe.

"What is wrong with you?!" Finn roared at the top of his lungs.

"Finn, please calm down," his mother remonstrated, her eyes filled with unshed tears at the chaos currently tearing down their family home.

"Don't tell me to calm down, Mom!" Finn fumed right back, turning red in the face. "She seduced my girlfriend! You're sick," he spat with utter contempt in Lexa's direction.

He didn't think it was possible to hate someone as much as he hated his own flesh and blood in that moment. Finn had always been a 'live and let live' kind of guy. But as it turned out, even he had his limits with how much he was willing to live with.

"I didn't mean for any of it to happen, Finn. Please believe me when I say that," Lexa remonstrated, crying even more as she spoke. Her lower back stung where it had hit the edge of the sofa after her cousin had pushed her. This was the absolute worst she'd ever felt, even more than when her own parents had died.

"Why the hell should I believe anything you've ever said to me?!" Finn fumed with mocking laughter that sounded alien in his ears. "How do I know you didn't secretly seduce any of my other girlfriends before Clarke?"

"Finn!" Bellamy interjected with a note of warning.

"I'm so sorry, you have no idea. Please, you have to forgive me, Finn." Lexa pleaded while Octavia laid a comforting hand on her arm.

"I don't have to do a damn thing. As far as I'm concerned, you're nothing to me."

Finn stalked past his cousin, past everyone in the house, slamming the screen door like roaring thunder behind him.

And just like that, Lexa's whole world came crashing down around her.

_**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo** _

A month after that, Lexa was finally the one to jog into her bedroom and begin packing up her things. Finn wasn't speaking to her all these days and the rest of her family was constantly bombarding her with stern condemnation over what she'd done.

Lexa understood their position; she'd done a terrible thing. But that didn't make it any easier to stomach their constant reproach over a choice she made. As much as she loved her family and her home, Lexa just couldn't stomach staying there anymore. She needed to get away and think about what she was going to do.

She'd tried her hardest to forget about Clarke Griffin. Not just for Finn's sake, but also for the preservation of her own sanity. But it was no use; that elusive city girl had left a scorching imprint on her heart from the day they'd first met. There was just no going back after any of it.

"Lexa, what are you doing?" Octavia cried out, close to tears herself. She was worn out from everyone in her family constantly at each other's throats these days. Everything was a complete mess.

"I'm doing what all of you wanted me to do in the first place," Lexa snapped unkindly in her cousin's direction. "I've disgraced my family. So you don't have to put up with my presence any longer." She zipped up her suitcase with a heavy heart and made to leave her bedroom behind forever.

"Mom, this is crazy. Lexa's family – she can't go!" Bellamy begged of his parents.

He didn't understand anything that had happened between Lexa, Clarke and Finn, nor did he condone it for one second. But Lexa was his cousin; they'd grown up together as close as siblings. How could this be happening where his entire family was falling apart in the blink of an eye over one mistake that was made in the heat of the moment?

"It's her decision," Sue said in a woeful tone.

"No it isn't," Rob piped up unexpectedly. Then he gazed at his niece with unrepressed reproach. "You're not going anywhere until you help all of us understand how you could do something like this to Finn. He's been like a brother to you ever since you were little and you caused his girlfriend to break up with him. Clarke was someone he cared about, maybe even loved. How could you do that to someone you love? For a...for a cheap fling?" he demanded, feeling genuinely sorry for all of this madness that had happened under his roof.

"Yes, it happened in the heat of the moment. But it wasn't a cheap fling, Uncle Rob. The truth is that I fell in love with Clarke. I didn't mean to, it just happened. If I could go back in time and undo what I did to Finn a hundred times over, you know I would. But I can't. This is who I am for better or for worse. I'm not asking you to understand it or accept it. Please just let me try to figure this out for myself and make things right between me and Finn. He is like my brother and I love him with all my heart. And I'm deeply sorry that I hurt him and disappointed all of my family."

"You're right, we are disappointed," Octavia conceded after a long and awkward bout of silence. "Because Finn's hurting over you and Clarke. And because you hid this part of yourself from us for so long. Did you really think we wouldn't understand?"

"Do you though? Do you really understand?"

For once, Octavia was at a loss of how to respond. She loved Lexa with all her heart, but even she was having trouble understanding exactly how her cousin had fallen in love with her brother's girlfriend. She genuinely thought her cousin hadn't liked Clarke at all.

"We don't live in a very understanding world..." Nana Blake piped up unexpectedly. "We only live in one that's trying to be more tolerant. Sometimes...understanding and tolerating don't always mean the same thing. But you can still tolerate something or someone without needing to understand their motivations."

Everyone in the room was thrown by this sudden spurt of wisdom from the eldest of the Blakes. The oldest family member barely took time to speak period, much less formulating sentences about anything that actually mattered. And here she was, making more sense than anyone else in the room had bothered to string together on their own.

"That may be true, but I don't want to tolerate anything. I want to understand." Sue said in a low voice, gazing forlornly at her niece.

She remembered when she had to sit up with Lexa when she was younger and afraid of thunderstorms. Her young niece had depended on her so much back then for comfort. Had she really grown up into a woman who no longer needed to be comforted or protected by her own family?

Before Lexa knew what she was doing, she threw her suitcase down savagely onto the wooden floor, clanging like an angry horde of tigers as it rattled loudly on the ground.

"I don't even know what's going on with myself and here you are, spelling it out as clear as day, like you do this kind of thing all the time!" she fumed in an irate voice at her grandmother.

Instead of being mortally offended that her grandmother had dared to speak to her in such a disrespectful way, Nana Blake looked completely nonplussed by Lexa's sudden outburst. She bent down and righted the suitcase that had stopped rattling on the ground. Then she moved towards her granddaughter and grasped her in a tight embrace against her wrinkly and bony frame.

The sudden tenderness and warmth of the act made Lexa's defenses crumble completely as she sank into her elderly grandmother's embrace and began sobbing quietly against her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Nana. I messed up everything, please forgive me," the younger country woman repeated over and over again as she cried her heart out.

"It's alright, my child," Lexa's grandmother chided in a soothing voice, keeping a firm grip on the younger woman.

And they stayed like that for a long time while the rest of the family looked on in a muted daze.


	11. Facing The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Finn asks some questions and Clarke attempts to answer them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, everyone :-) I hope you all weren't too bummed out too much by the previous chapter :-/ Never fear, Clexa will have some definite resolution soon with their love story :-D This next chapter takes place six months after Clarke and Finn break up. I hope you all like it!

Three months after this, Clarke was getting ready to go on her lunch break.

She had spent a gruelling couple of hours working on the latest edition of 'The Commander of Death'. It was her baby: the first comic she'd planned, drafted and sketched since coming to work at _Ton DC Graphics_ nearly 2 years ago. The comic and the main character, Wanheda, were finally gathering a huge fan base and there were whispers about Clarke being offered another opportunity to launch another comic.

Clarke should've been ecstatic about these amazing developments in her professional life. Instead, she felt depressed and exhausted. After breaking up with Finn and destroying his family in her own mind, she had thrown herself into work in an unhealthy ritual of only breakfasting on black coffee, spending hours on her sketches before fleshing them out on her tablet with a stylus. She would do this for hours, long after all her colleagues and her boss had gone home to their families and significant others. The latter thought alone drove Clarke to work even harder on her comic because it stopped her from thinking about the loss of everything and everyone she'd once cared about.

Especially Lexa.

Even though it had been close to 6 months since she'd walked out of Finn's family home, Clarke still hadn't gotten over falling in love with the enigmatic beauty. But as much as she wanted to see her, even just to hear her voice, Clarke knew she couldn't be with Lexa without hurting Finn and the rest of his family even more.

So while she sketched more pictures of Wanheda killing barbaric humans in a neo-apocalyptic world, her mind constantly replayed those sweet stolen moments she'd shared with Lexa on a gangrenous loop. So much so that her sketches of Wanheda, who used to have hair as black as the night, were now a lighter shade of honey-brown with tints of gold in-between. And her eyes had evolved to a fiercer and more poignant shade of green.

And just when she'd gradually begun to get her sanity back piece by piece, a ghost from the past was waiting for her in the lobby of _Ton DC Graphics_ a few weeks later.

It was Finn.

Clarke's clutch purse slipped off of her bony shoulder as she stared in awe at her ex-boyfriend who gazed at her with sullen amusement. What was he doing here? With a pang of guilt and resentment, the city girl couldn't help noticing that her ex-boyfriend had gotten better good looking since she'd last seen him. And he seemed to know it too as he regarded her with a look of pure disdain.

"Finn? What are you doing here?" Clarke stammered. She got onto her haunches to pick up her bag, her hands trembling with sudden emotion.

"I just want to know why," Finn began without preamble. He got down on his haunches too and ended up helping Clarke pick up the miscellaneous items that had fallen out of her bag and put them back in their rightful place.

"Why?"

"Why Lexa? Why her? Of all the people you could've screwed behind my back, why did it have to be my cousin who's also a woman?"

Clarke didn't have an answer for that. She'd been asking herself that exact same question ever since it had happened. And she still wasn't any closer to figuring it out. Clarke gulped and looked about her. That's when she realised that everyone else had already gone to lunch.

It was just her and Finn and nowhere to run.

She sighed and pulled on her ex-boyfriend's arm. Even though Finn was sure he didn't want someone he was convinced he hated touching him, he made no effort to stop Clarke from dragging him forward and leading into a quiet room filled with dozens of vintage comic books from a simpler and more forgiving time.

The room was like a museum to him with its antiquated print presses and dust collecting in the corners of the ceiling. The faces of familiar and unfamiliar superheroes smiling manically back at him did even less to improve Finn's current state of mind.

Feeling a little braver than usual, Clarke sighed and figuratively squared her shoulders as she finally dared to look at her ex-boyfriend.

"I know you won't believe me when I say this. But...I really didn't mean for any of it to happen with Lexa. I thought she hated me and I did everything I could just to stay away from her. But then I got bitten by that snake and she took care of me. And it was after that point that I realised how sweet and kind she was, just like you told me all along. We developed a friendship and it turned into something more in the heat of the moment, something neither one of us expected or planned. We both cared about you and we hated betraying you the way we did. I don't expect you to understand or forgive me. But I do regret betraying you, Finn. You didn't deserve that, I'm so sorry."

Even after all this time, Finn still didn't like seeing Clarke cry. It made him feel like a big jerk and that nothing would ever be right again in the world when his ex-girlfriend cried like this. But he hadn't come here for her tears. He came to finally get some answers from the only person who could possibly give it to him.

"Are you in love with my cousin?"

That effectively stopped Clarke's tears as she gazed in wonder at her ex-boyfriend's supposedly calm demeanour. She could see the stark pain in his eyes from having to ask her that question and it broke her heart even more.

"I...it doesn't matter," Clarke declared in a stubborn voice. "We hurt you and the rest of your family; we can't go back after that. I'm never going to see her again, I promise you that."

Finn expected to feel relieved, ecstatic even, by that sweeping declaration made by his ex-girlfriend. But in all honesty, it just made him feel worse about everything.

"You always were a terrible liar, Clarke. You should work on that, for everyone's sake."

And before Clarke could ask what he meant or make him stay, Finn had already shoved his hands into his pants pockets and walked out of the tiny comic mausoleum, leaving her feeling more confused than ever.


	12. Embracing The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke gets a surprise visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! Thanks so much to Jesse2 for the multiple reviews last night, you put a smile on top of my hat :'-) There are two chapters left of 'Wild Country' and I'm going to upload them both tonight. So sit back on that deck chair, put on your Clexa sunglasses and soak up some sunshine :-DDD

Another six months slid by painfully for Clarke before she finally reached a state of equilibrium. She took time to eat breakfast in the mornings and she even cut back on her hours at _Ton DC Graphics_ to relax and have fun.

The confrontation with Finn had been painful and debilitating. But it had been cathartic in its own way with helping Clarke move on from her past mistakes. She was far from happy and satisfied with how her life had turned out. But it was getting better slowly for her.

On that particular day, Clarke left work at 5pm and strolled around the neighbourhood of Adams Morgan with its spectral menagerie of houses and buildings in every imaginable shape and colour. Clarke criss-crossed between cars parked haphazardly in a squiggly line across the sidewalks of 18th Street, the fragrant aromas of marinated chicken and fried tofu wafting tantalisingly through her nostrils as she passed by _Donburi_ , a famous Japanese restaurant in the area.

She stopped at a grocery store to pick up some fresh salad leaves, ready-made roast beef and a slice of chocolate mousse cake. Then Clarke made her way back to her new apartment of a few months, which was a stone's throw from Dupont Circle.

After making a haphazard salad with the new leaves and some left over tomatoes and olives, Clarke busied herself with reheating the beef in the microwave. While that wondrous appliance hummed away merrily in the background, she poured herself a massive glass of red wine while listening to some low-key love songs on her iPod dock in the living room.

Just then, a soft knock came on her front door.

Clarke frowned quizzically while checking her watch, wondering who it could be. Not that many people within her circle of friends and family even knew that she'd switched apartments; and it was too late for the mailman to be bringing her any letters.

She opened the front door without checking the peephole first. And in doing so, she dropped the glass of red wine she held in her hand, the contents falling on the floor and landing on the edges of her pants and shirt.

It was Lexa Blake.

_She was standing at her front door._

Clarke wondered if she was dreaming.

Before she could say anything, Lexa's eyes widened with amazement at the dropped wine glass. She stooped down to pick it up, being careful to avoid the sharp edges that had formed around the rim where it had broken.

"I'm so sorry..." she mumbled self-consciously, trying to rub the maroon stains now forming on Clarke's clothes because of her foolishness.

Clarke noted that the country girl's hair was a lot shorter than before, but still that tantalising honey-brown with flecks of gold and wavy in the sexiest way possible, just like she remembered. Clarke remained where she was, not daring to believe that Lexa was really in front of her trying to clean her clothes with her hands.

"Lexa," she breathed out, almost as if saying her name caused her real pain. "What are you doing here?"

Lexa stopped fussing with Clarke's pants and got to her feet, looking just as spell-bound as the former. Unlike her, Clarke had grown out her ash-blonde hair so that it fell like a curtain over clusters of tiny, brown freckles on her pale shoulders that the country girl had never noticed before.

"I came to see you."

"How did you find me?"

"It wasn't easy," Lexa said, placing the shards of broken glass delicately onto the nearby kitchen island before retreating rapidly back to the safety of the hallway. Clarke watched the girl's progress and subtly pinched her arm, wondering if she was dreaming somehow. "I finally got Finn to tell me, but it turned out to be your previous address in Navy Yard. So I harassed your ex-landlord and some of your old neighbours for good measure till one of them actually made themselves useful and remembered your new address."

Clarke was still very much in a total state of shock, so Lexa ploughed on with awkward attempts at making banal chit-chat.

"You look amazing," she began, her heart hammering like a freight train in her chest as she spoke. "Somehow, seeing you here in Washington D.C, in your natural habitat in the big city, suits you."

This comment about the big city got Clarke to smile as she took in Lexa leaning somewhat awkwardly against the piece of wall nearest to her front door. She couldn't help noticing that Lexa still wore a red and black plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up at the elbows and tied at the ends over a black tank-top. But instead of her brown cowboy boots that were usually caked in mud from long hours of farm work, she now wore faded black jeans ripped around the knees and light blue high tops that made her look more like an urban college student than a simple countryside girl.

"You look amazing too, incredible even. I see you changed cameras," Clarke noted, her eyes trailing over Lexa's chest where the object in question hung attached to a leather strap slung around her neck. It was a bigger and bulkier affair with a larger lens than her small silver camera she'd shown the city girl once upon a time when things had been less complicated between them.

Lexa blushed at this and fingered her camera self-consciously as she spoke. "Yeah, I did. It seemed more practical to get a better camera when I started taking Photography classes and doing part time photography jobs inside and outside of Arkadia-"

"You've really taken up Photography?" Clarke asked in amazement.

"I did. I'm still not that great at it, but I sort of love it. I have you to thank for giving me the courage to finally pursue it." Lexa declared, lifting her head and looking Clarke dead in the face.

That look alone was enough to melt Clarke's bones on the spot. But it also reminded her of all the reasons why she shouldn't be having this conversation with Lexa after all this time.

"Lexa…"

"Did I tell you how good you look already? Because you really do," Lexa continued babbling, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks. "I always liked your hair shorter, but long hair suits you even more. I read the latest edition of 'The Commander of Death' and I loved it! I never knew how talented you were when we first met and now I keep learning so many new and wonderful things about you that makes me want to-"

"Lexa, why are you here?" Clarke questioned again, her heart hammering wildly in her chest, unshed tears stinging the backs of her eyeballs as she spoke.

She honestly thought this feeling would dissipate with time, especially when it came to trying to figure out what went on in Lexa Blake's head. But it was a year later and she still had no clue.

"I...I came...to see you," Lexa said with difficulty. She'd rehearsed over what she was going to say at least a million times. But now that the moment of truth had arrived, she was at a complete loss and it frustrated her.

"Why?" Clarke asked with genuine confusion.

Lexa minimised the gap between them and pulled Clarke into a tight embrace that was sure to crush her bones into dust. The city girl marvelled at the rapid thumping of the country girl's heart as it slammed between their two bodies while holding her close.

"Because I missed you," Lexa said with a greater effort at bravery, cupping the back of Clarke's head as she spoke.

But Clarke was too quick this time and disentangled herself from Lexa's grasp, leaving the latter looking and feeling stunned and hurt. "You can't be here right now," she protested, feeling hot tears swimming in her eyes.

Her happiness to see Lexa surpassed meagre words. But the guilt was eating away at her and she couldn't handle it.

"I know," Lexa agreed with reluctance. "But I couldn't live another moment without seeing you. I tried to forget about you after you left, but I failed miserably. I should never have let you leave. I should've gone after you and made you stay with me somehow. I'm so crazy about you that I can't think straight about anything or anyone anymore. And I can't run from it. I just needed to come here and see you so that I'd know it wasn't all just a dream, that it really happened. That you happened to me."

"It did happen," Clarke offered with shaky breaths. "You happened to me too and I fell so hard for you, even though it broke everything into little pieces."

She found herself moving closer to Lexa, even if it was just to make sure the other woman was really standing in front of her after all this time.

"Everything fell apart after that, including me. And I wanted you to be there to fix everything; I still want you, even now. I can't get you out of my head-"

Lexa didn't let her finish, silencing her explanation with a hard kiss that rippled over them like a wave crashing down onto the sand. For the first time in a long time, Clarke let herself go completely, ignoring the fact that her front door was still wide open and any of her super conservative neighbours could walk past at any minute and see her kissing a woman.

But she didn't care, her hands landing on Lexa's shoulders as she returned the pressure of each hungry kiss the taller woman planted on her lips. It was the only thing that existed in that moment, heat and love growing and gathering around them like tiny fireflies of possibility. Clarke whimpered with need and loss when Lexa abandoned her lips after what felt like hours and took to staring at her with unrepressed wonder.

"One year..." Clarke sobbed out, her fingertips tracing circles over Lexa's angular face. "One long and lonely year that you made me wait for you." She half-scolded, laughing just a little at the same time.

Lexa laughed too and held on tightly to Clarke's hands caressing her cheeks. "I'm so sorry; I came as fast as I could. As fast as...my family was able to accept that I'm insanely in love with you, Clarke Griffin."

Clarke's heart leapt in her chest as she gazed at the love of her life with unrepressed awe. "They're really ok with you coming for me?" she whispered in awe.

Lexa sighed and rested her forehead against Clarke's. "It took a lot of arguments about who I'm supposed to love, which led to some actual discussions about who I chose to love. Because my heart did choose you. It's always been you, Clarke. I think they only held out for as long as they did for Finn's sake, and I could never fault them for that. He's like a brother to me and I betrayed him in the worst possible way."

"You weren't the only one who betrayed him. It's more my fault than it was ever yours. I kissed you first, remember?"

"You may have kissed me, but I'm the one who made love to you repeatedly in the bedroom next to my cousin's," Lexa countered, drawing out every single syllable with luxurious seduction.

The country girl couldn't help smirking at the fact that Clarke was now blushing a deep red at her words. She'd missed every inch of her beautiful face for a whole year.

"You shouldn't have run away. You shouldn't have left me, left...us like that." Lexa stammered with unrepressed sorrow after a tense silence ensued.

Clarke closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Lexa's, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I know, I'm so sorry. I thought it would be easier if I left without telling anyone why, especially Finn. You're like a sister to him and I already broke his heart. I didn't want him to lose you too because of me. Because I was being selfish."

"It didn't matter though, Clarke; your sacrifice was in vain. I couldn't live with the fact that I fell in love with my cousin's girlfriend and broke the two of you apart with my own reckless actions. When he told everyone he still wanted you back, I just couldn't hold it in any longer. You weren't the only one who was selfish."

By this time, Clarke finally went to close her front door, locking it a moment later before she led Lexa by the hand to sit down on the threadbare sofa in her small living room.

"How is he? I only saw him once after we broke up and he still seemed pretty angry with me."

Lexa sighed and held onto Clarke's hand currently stroking her thigh with soothing caresses. "He's getting better slowly. He was angry at me for a while; God knows he probably still is most days. But...we finally had a good heart to heart a few weeks ago, about everything. Even about why I chased all of his previous girlfriends away."

_"I'm still really mad at you, Lexa…" Finn confessed, sighing heavily afterwards. "But I'm even more pissed off at you for hiding behind me all these years."_

_"What are you talking about?" Lexa asked in genuine confusion._

_"You may be a million times better at running a farm than I ever could be, so much so that even my own dad would agree in a heartbeat. But when it comes to matters of the heart, I've always been a step ahead of you. That's how I found Clarke, just by opening my heart to her."_

_"Finn…" Lexa interrupted, her voice wrought with sudden anguish._

_But her cousin ignored her plea and continued speaking, even though it was painful for him too. "Besides Clarke, when was the last time you really gave your heart to anything or anyone?"_

_Lexa had no answer and that was the point Finn was trying to make._

_"You can't blame your parents' death or me or anyone else for you hiding yourself away on a farm in the middle of nowhere and never truly trying to be happy. And if Clark is really your happiness, then no one should stand in your way, not even me. I'm done being your excuse for all of it." Finn said in a matter-of-fact way that still spoke volumes…_

"Let me guess: you fell in love with one of them before me?" Clarke teased Lexa, even though referring to Finn's exes in this context was wildly inappropriate.

Luckily for her, Lexa burst out laughing at her audacious remark. "Very funny. None of Finn's other girlfriends could ever hold a candle to you, Clarke Griffin. You're timeless." She praised unabashedly.

Clarke was too overcome to say anything. So she settled for leaning in and placing a tender kiss on Lexa's cheek, which made the other blush profusely. "Why did you chase his other girlfriends away?" she finally asked.

"Some of them were pretty shallow and stupid, and I just thought they didn't suit Finn well at all. But for the most part, maybe seeing him so happy with anyone made me realise just how lonely I felt. Finn and I used to be super competitive growing up; in some ways, getting underneath his girlfriends' skins was a game to me. But then you came along and it irked me that you were so perfect for him. I couldn't find anything wrong with you, except that you were with Finn instead of me. And I was an idiot for not realising it sooner…"

_"You really are an idiot, Lexa," Raven quipped for the umpteenth time._

_"Um, thank you?" Lexa shot back. She was in the midst of sifting through crappy and decent pictures she'd recently taken at a child's 5th birthday party at Chucky Cheese while she, Raven and Anya sat together in Anya's living room._

_"You're not welcome," Raven snapped more seriously, which threw Lexa for a moment. "I'm happy that you're not devoting your entire life to helping your uncle run Polis Farm anymore. But enough is enough – what about Clarke?" her friend demanded._

_"What about her?"_

_"Are you ever going to see her again?" the dark-haired beauty asked, looking forlorn for her friend's romantic plight._

_"How can I? My family's falling apart and Finn's not talking to me," Lexa said in a stoic tone that cost her everything._

_"So what? That means you have to give up on any chance of happiness too?"_

_"How can you say that, Ray? Finn's my cousin and he's been one of your closest friends since we were all kids!" Lexa protested indignantly, not understanding her friend's perspective at all._

_"In case anyone cares, Finn's my friend too and I happen to agree with Raven," Anya pointed out._

_"Aww geez, here we go again…"_

_"Yes, and every conversation we have will keep going this route until you stop being a stubborn idiot and go after what you really want." Anya urged._

_"Becoming a photographer is one thing. But ripping my whole world apart just to come out of the closet for an opinionated, cartoon-sketching, unable-to-catch-a-chicken, hipster city girl seems like a lot to deal with."_

_"Enough horse shit, Lexa. You fell hard for a hopeless-at-chasing-chickens, beautiful, smart and kind city girl the second she called you out on your holier-than-thou bluster and you know it too. Even Finn knows it now and let's face it, he didn't know a damn thing in the beginning." Raven defended._

_"Neither did the two of you," Lexa couldn't resist pointing out with a smirk on her face._

_"Give us a little more credit, Lexa," Anya said with a dismissive snort beforehand. "We knew there was a spark between you and Clarke before you idiots even knew anything. But the timing was beyond crap back then. The only question is: what are you going to do about it now?" the blonde asked more calmly._

_"Nothing! I love her and there's nothing I can do about it without hurting Finn more!" Lexa fumed, the tears being wrenched out of her without her say-so._

_"Despite the hurt and pain you and Finn have caused each other over the years, you're still family at the end of the day. With the Blakes, that means more than with regular families. Finn still loves you and he will forgive you eventually. But you can't put your own happiness on hold just to appease him. Underneath all his anger, Finn definitely doesn't want that." Anya said, stroking Lexa's arm reassuringly._

_"How can you even know that?" Lexa asked through her tears. "It's been a year and Clarke's probably moved on by now…" she trailed off, feeling distinctly sorry for herself._

_"You won't know that for sure until you try to find her again," Raven re-joined in a gentler voice, resting her hand on Lexa's shoulder. "So what's it going to be, Commander: Are you finally going to tell Clarke how you really feel, even if it sounds dumb?" the tanned woman asked with devilish grin on her face…_

"Oh, Lexa..." Clarke murmured at the end of Lexa's recollection.

"I know. I went about all this stuff the wrong way," Lexa conceded, hanging her head in shame.

But she'd misunderstood Clarke's tone completely. The city girl wasn't reproaching her; in fact, she was deeply touched by the country girl's words. She decided to make her feelings plain when she cupped Lexa's cheeks in her hands once more.

"How did I never know until now just how incredibly sweet you are, Lexa Blake?" she whispered to the room at large.

Lexa didn't know what to say, so she kept her eyes focused on the woman she'd fallen madly in love with, getting lost in her crystal, blue eyes that reminded her of tranquil streams back in Arkadia.

"If it helps, your hostile demeanour threw me when we first met. So I started playing some games of my own too." Clarke reminisced with a rueful smile. "You really told your family everything?"

"I did. They're still trying to wrap their heads around me being in love with a woman and I know it's hard for them. But they haven't turned away from me and it's more than I could've hoped for."

"Do they hate me now?"

Lexa chuckled wryly and planted a loving kiss on Clarke's forehead. "No, they never hated you. They were hurt, but they projected most of it onto me."

"I'm sorry, Lexa. I should've been there to help you through it."

"Stop, it's ok. I needed to be away from you to realise that I can't live without you."

"I don't want to be without you either." Clarke whispered in a shy voice. "I love you, Lexa."

It felt so good for the country woman to finally hear those words after a whole year. After her parents had died all those years ago, she'd wondered if she'd ever feel that kind of all-consuming love again. And yet here she was, sitting on a couch in the biggest city she'd ever laid eyes on, head over heels in love with a brash and beautiful city girl who magically loved her back.

And the only way she could properly express her happiness about it all was to lean in and kiss Clarke again without intending to stop any time soon. This led to an intense cluster of heat swirling all around them as Clarke grabbed at the edges of Lexa's shirt and dragged her up from the sofa to her bedroom.

Then it was finally her turn to take the lead with caressing every inch of her love's heavenly body, undressing both Lexa and herself achingly slow as they kept kissing and exploring each other. And they did this till their soft breathing became laboured, stilted whispers of passion.

When Lexa managed to stave the worst of those scorching flames burning Clarke inside out with a few gentle kisses along her jawline afterwards, the blonde artist dared to ask a question that had plagued her mind all evening.

"When did you first know that you loved me?"

Lexa stopped torturing Clarke with butterfly kisses on the inside of her wrist a moment later as she fixed her lady love with a cool and calculating glare, her eyebrow quirking fiercely.

"When you drank my tequila."

Clarke let out a loud guffaw when Lexa's mouth curled into a seductive smile that made her want her all over again.

"And when did you know that you loved me?" the country girl asked more seriously. Judging by the darker hue her green eyes had taken on, Clarke knew that the latter longed to know the answer, whatever it turned out to be.

She moved closer, wrapping her legs, arms and heart completely around Lexa. Crystals and emeralds shimmered as their eyes locked, conveying a million messages in a seamless transmission.

"When you drank my blood, you moody vampire." Clarke mumbled in a husky tone, burying her face on a sudden impulse into the crook of Lexa's neck.

Lexa chuckled dryly at Clarke's glib rejoinder. But then she became anxious to see the blonde's woman's face again. She needed those crystal orbs to hold her gaze and claim her in any way she pleased.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," she whispered almost frantically, recalling that terrible day a little too vividly when Clarke got hurt while picking blueberries.

Clarke lifted her face and her blue eyes shone even brighter at the intense look of devotion on her lady love's face.

"And that's exactly why I love you, Lexa Blake," she whispered back with almost as much desperation.

That was all the encouragement Lexa needed to shift their bodies so that Clarke was underneath her and she could hold her close while kissing her slowly, like they had all the time in the world.

"Don't go again, Lexa," Clarke mumbled, hissing in ecstasy a moment later when Lexa grazed her teeth over her collarbone with possessive sensuality.

The force of Lexa's emotions in the heat of the moment were too strong, muting the words Lexa wanted to say. So she used her body instead to show Clarke that she never wanted to leave her, and right now that included her bed and her heart.

"Never," Lexa finally promised in gasping ecstasy when Clarke's mouth found purchase on her earlobe and they got lost further in each other.

Lexa stayed true to the words of her flesh and didn't go anywhere.

She stayed wrapped up in Clarke for the rest of the night and into the dregs of the next morning, holding her close like she was her lifeline, reveling in the fact that they were finally together after all this time.


	13. Resetting The Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clarke meets Finn's family for the second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and all its ridiculous Clexa fluff :-P I've only visited Washington D.C. many moons ago, so I had to do a little research on Clarke's neighbourhood in the story. Up next: the epilogue and the conclusion to Clexa's AU love story. Thank you so much to everyone who read, reviewed and left kudos for 'Wild Country', it's been an honour sharing this story with all of you out there :'-) Please stay safe and healthy during this Coronavirus epidemic <3

"Lexa, I really don't know about this..." Clarke trailed off with real anxiety.

Despite her better intentions, Lexa couldn't resist sighing as she wrapped her hands around Clarke's small waist.

"Sweetheart, we've been over this. Everything's going to be ok, I promise."

"It's still terrifying."

"But you've done this before!"

It was Clarke's turn to be annoyed with her girlfriend. "Yes, when I was dating your cousin. But now I'm dating you and meeting your family...again." she ended off in a thoroughly miserable voice.

Lexa chuckled softly and kissed the side of Clarke's face with a loving air. "This isn't like last time. My family just wants to do this right. Even Finn thought it was a good idea."

That last statement did absolutely nothing to make Clarke feel better about the ridiculousness of this situation. "Now I feel even worse," Clarke murmured with a heavy heart, leaning her head against Lexa's tanned arm.

"If it gets too much for you, I'll whisk you away on Pearl." Lexa promised with a sly smile.

"You promise?" Clarke asked with a cute pout on her lips.

"I promise," Lexa said against her mouth before claiming it in a sweet kiss.

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by Nana Blake opening the screen door with a loud bang.

"Are the two of you going to stand out there all day or are you going to come inside? More flies are coming in because of you!"

"Sorry, Nana." Both Clarke and Lexa apologised with blushes on their cheeks.

"Why were the two of you standing outside like lepers this whole time? You're not running back to Washington DC already, are you?" Rob Blake demanded in a huff.

He was sitting on a newly purchased recliner in the living room, smoking jauntily on a cigar as he spoke. Nevertheless, he was being half-serious about his former statement. 

Not long after Lexa had tried to leave the family home after falling out with Finn over Clarke, Lexa had given some careful thought about her future.

She had shocked her family for the third time in one month when she told them she was going to live with Anya while she 'figured things out'. Figuring things out in Lexa's mind had turned into taking the pictures of Pearl on her digital camera and enrolling in a Photography class at a local community college just outside of Arkadia for three months. She ended up making a few more friends there and got a few part-time gigs afterwards, mostly taking pictures at weddings and children's birthdays.

But a new path had emerged in front of Lexa and she wouldn't have chosen to go back to what she had before even if she'd really wanted to. Her uncle had taken the news hard, considering that Lexa was an invaluable asset on Polis Farm. But he'd seen the determination in his niece's eyes and he ultimately knew that God himself, much less him, couldn't stand in her way. The farm had a good season and he'd been able to use some of the proceeds to hire a new farm hand to help him and Bellamy take care of things. Finn was finally settling into his career in the field of mechanical engineering and Rob couldn't rely on Octavia; she'd set her sights on having a penthouse apartment in Manhattan ever since she'd opened her first issue of _Cosmo_ at the ripe age of 5.

As for Clarke and Lexa, they'd been together for close to 8 months now and were still very much in the 'honeymoon phase' of their relationship, much to the chagrin and annoyance of their nearest and dearest. Clarke was working on her second comic while Lexa was gradually building up her photography portfolio and taking any jobs she could to make a name for herself. Clarke was immensely proud of her country girl and was her biggest fan when it came to her beautiful photographs.

After just a month into their new relationship. Clarke finally took the plunge and introduced Lexa to her mother. Abigail Griffin played the 'heavy' with Lexa for their first few conversations. But it was only for show for several reasons. First, the seasoned doctor wanted to make sure that Clarke wasn't on the rebound after Finn, considering that she was still getting used to her daughter being attracted to both men and women. And second, Clarke's mother wanted to test Lexa to see if she was really serious about her daughter, knowing just how fragile her baby girl's heart could be when she loved and lost someone. Despite being quite terrified of Abigail Griffin and her reputation as one of the best surgeons on the East Coast, Lexa held her ground with impressive fortitude and proved her love sincerely for Clarke time and time again in all matters, great and small. From then on, Abigail relaxed her stance and welcomed Lexa wholeheartedly into her family.

They were living together now in Clarke's little apartment in Dupont Circle, which had been a near-impossible feat in itself. Lexa had wanted to live with Clarke from the very beginning, but it had taken her a while to commit to the idea and leave Pearl behind on Polis. But after they had crossed that particular hurdle, the couple were now making plans to have Pearl moved to the city at a stable nearby their home so that Lexa could visit her baby as often as possible.

And now, the moment of truth had arrived when everyone in the Blake household would be having a meal together for the first time in a year. Clarke suddenly thought that going another round with Flaky would somehow be easier to deal with than lunch with the Blakes.

"How many times have I told you not to smoke in the house?" Sue fumed, grabbing the cigar dangling from her husband's parted lips and dousing it in the ashtray resting beneath his hand.

"Why do you insist on taking away everything I actually enjoy about living in the countryside, woman?" Rob scolded his wife.

"Because the thing you enjoy is going to kill you, old man!"

Octavia shot her parents a look of pure exasperation before moving towards Clarke and Lexa and giving them a welcoming hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Don't mind them. They haven't had sex in a while; that's why they're so grumpy," Finn's younger sister teased.

"Octavia Tallulah Blake!"

"Tallulah?" Clarke aside of Lexa in a whispered aside, to which her girlfriend shrugged wordlessly in response. To this day, Lexa still had no clue about the origins of her cousin's unusual middle name.

"Are those damn Neapolitan magazines teaching you that vulgar nonsense?!"

"Language, Daddy," Octavia shot back in a sickly, sweet voice that made her father roll his eyes at the ceiling.

"Octavia's always been vulgar and full of nonsense long before _Cosmopolitan_ , dear parents," Bellamy supplied, carrying several hefty looking Tupperware containers of raw meat in his muscular arms.

Clarke giggled when Octavia scowled and flicked her older brother on the forehead. But she couldn't resist feeling a sense of disquiet when they finally sat down to a family lunch outside and Finn arrived 40 minutes later.

He was quiet for most of the meal. But in truth, he was only waiting for the right moment to clear his throat and say –

"I sincerely hope this will be the last time Clarke gets introduced to this family. I don't think I'll be able to take it if she ends up sweeping Octavia off her feet too."

Things went deathly quiet till Sue of all people began laughing her head off. "Finn, that's a terrible joke!"

"You got that right! Implying Clarke would actually pass on trying to get with me first over my baby sister," Bellamy fumed.

"Most people do. Get over it, Don Juan." Octavia teased, which earned her a napkin thrown at her face by her older brother.

"These damn children of mine…" Rob Blake muttered to himself, which earned him a loud chorus of 'Language!' from everyone seated at the table.

"No wonder I'm going senile. My old ears cannot tolerate any more of this family's perversion." Nana Blake lamented aloud.

Finn took that moment to gaze at Clarke and Lexa across the table, throwing them a half smile that was finally beginning to reach his eyes after a year of remaining dormant.

Clarke listened to everyone bickering and making jokes and smiled.

This was exactly how she'd wanted her first meeting of Finn's family to go.

Only this was a million times better than her wildest expectations.

It took her an insanely long time to get to this point. But she couldn't have done it if it hadn't been for Finn's big heart and for Lexa staying by her side and loving her just as she was.

Clarke had been so afraid to come to Arkadia because she was worried the wild terrain of the countryside would swallow her whole with its untamed vivacity. Instead, it soothed her and made her wish she could spend the rest of her days in a place just like this.

With the person she loved most in the world and the beautiful, kooky family that came attached to her.


End file.
